The Waterfall's Nymph
by Eleanor-Devil
Summary: When Sulfus, a teenage boy, falls on the the river in the middle of a boat trip with his friends, a strange and mysterious girl saves him. Not knowing who she is, Sulfus calls her The Waterfall's Nymph. But who is she really?
1. The Nymph

**The Waterfall's Nymph******

**Chapter 1 - The Nymph**

Well, how can I start this? My name is Sulfus Zolfanello, I'm 17 years old, my hair is short, spiky and raven like the night and I have got amber eyes like the sun. I'm a normal teenager who lives with his family in a house standing on the hilltop, yes my family is rich but to me money matters nothing, I'm just a teenager who loves to enjoy his life, live new adventures, take walks with his friends.

My parents are named Edan and Seraph Zolfanello and I have a little sister ten years younger than me, named Elisabeth.

My best friends are Gas, Cabiria and Kabale. Kabale isn't just my friend but also my girlfriend and now fiancée. Yes I know I told you I'm just 17 but that doesn't mean I'm planning on getting married right now...plus...I'm not sure anymore if this wedding will happen or not...because ever since I met _that_ girl, everything in my life changed...and it all started on that day...

-

It was a extremely hot, Summer day, a scorching heat covered all that place, all you wanted was to stay floating in the middle of a pool for the rest of the day. But on the contrary of that, a young boy with short dark hair was near the river together with three other people, three friends. One of them was a boy with short orange hair, he was a bit tall and also fat, you couldn't see the color of his eyes since he was wearing sunglasses, the other two were two girls, one had extremely long black hair with lilac locks and red eyes while the other girl had short, dark red hair with a scarlet lock, her eyes were exactly like the black haired teenager's eyes, amber.

Standing behind that small group stood a boat, big enough for the four of them to fit in there. It seemed to be that they were planning on going on a boat trip through the river.

"Oh come on, it will be fun and plus it's freaking hot today, what better thing than a boat trip through the river?" asked the raven haired boy

"I'm in!" said the dark red haired girl

The other with the red eyes rolled them "Of course, the love birds had to agree...alright, alright, I go"

"And you, Gas?" asked the boy

Gas had an uncertain look in his eyes, he was scratching the back of his head "Oh..I don't know Sulfus...I heard today that the water of the river are a bit choppy, don't you prefer to stay in pool instead?"

Sulfus chuckled "Gas, Gas, where is your adventure spirit?"

"I think today he decided to stay in pool..." murmured the boy

"Oh come on, don't be such a sissy!" said the black haired girl

"Yes it will be fun! Don't be a killjoy!" said the other girl, Gas sighed defeated, he didn't want to be the one who always wanted to stay behind...

"Alright, alright...I'm coming.." Sulfus smiled and wrapped his arm around his friend

"Good thing you agreed" Gas smiled a bit but he still had that feeling that something bad would happen...

The four climbed up the boat and started their trip, all of them were on the edges of the boat to enjoy the view, the red haired girl spent most of the time holding Sulfus' arm, he looked at her a bit annoyed

"Kabale, I know that we are a couple but you don't need to spend all the time holding my arm, you know? I barely can move" Kabale let his arm go

"I'm sorry sweetie!" she said as she kissed his cheek, Sulfus sighed and turned his face to another side, thinking what he had seen in that girl that now she was his girlfriend...girlfriend no...soon to be wife! He sighed again, he did like Kabale but the whole marriage thing was rushed by both their parents..he didn't even know if she was the one! He closed his amber eyes for a few moments...then opened them, resting them upon the view before them

As soon as he did that, his eyes suddenly widened...his body slightly leaned forward...as if he was trying to see something better...but what in the world had he seen?

_'What...what was just that...?'_ he thought and he keep thinking and thinking until he felt a hand rest on his shoulder which startled him

"Hey calm down Sulfus, what's wrong?" asked the black haired girl

"N-Nothing Cabiria...I was just thinking about something and you startled me.."

"Mmm.." however the girl didn't seem to be very convinced with that excuse...she knew her friend better than that...but she let him be, she didn't want to bother him "Well, as you wish but stay away from the edges of the boat, Gas said that it was here he heard the waters were choppy"

"Mmm..yeah..I'm coming" Cabiria walked away, Sulfus turned around to walk away as well but not before he took another look at the place he was looking before..._'I may be going crazy but..I could swear that I saw someone in the woods..a figure..oh! What are you thinking about Sulfus? Who would go take a walk on the deepest part of the woods alone, everyone knows it's like a labyrinth!'_

He shook his head trying to forget what he had seen...but at the same moment that he started walking away from the edge, the boat shook roughly, swinging from side to side. Sulfus lost his balance and fell back, only having time to brace himself against the metal bar of the edge

"What the hell?" he yelled, his friends had also hold themselves against the nearest and safest thing they had near them when the boat shook

"It's the water's stream! It's getting stronger!" said Gas "I warned you that the waters were choppy today!"

"Gas, we don't need a lecture right now! We need to find a way to dock the boat safely before we get sucked by the stream!" said Kabale

"And how are we going to do that?" screamed Cabiria

"We need to get the anchor, it's inside the cabin, hurry!" said Sulfus, the one who was nearest the cabin was Gas, he quickly managed to drag himself inside the cabin. Once in there, he searched for the anchor and found it...but when he was about to pick it up...the boat shook violently again

"Sulfus!" he heard Kabale screaming, as fast as he could, Gas grabbed the anchor and run out of the cabin but he came across a terrible scene...Cabiria and Kabale were now leaning down against the metal bar of the edge, in the place where Sulfus was standing moments ago...seeing that he wasn't there anymore he realized the worst...his friend had fallen in the river!

"Try to grab the buoy!" screamed Cabiria as she threw the life buoy, that has been tied to the inside of the boat, towards the fallen boy who keep trying to stay in the surface...it wasn't that he didn't know how to swim, he did...but the stream was too strong and was pushing him away from the boat, more and more...the buoy almost reached him but the stream once again pushed him away "Sulfus!"

The boy moved his arms up and down, trying to find something safe to grab to since he couldn't grab the buoy...but as he kicked his feet to keep himself in the surface, he ended up wrapping one of them in a branch that stood in the deepest part of the river, since the stream was too strong and he didn't have anything else to grab to, the branch ended up pulling him down

Sulfus tried to hold his breath but he had already swallowed water before he could do that...consequently the boy disappeared in the middle of the choppy waters, disappearing from his friends' views...he couldn't hear anything more, his vision was becoming blurred and blurred and then black...until he couldn't see anything more...

-

I don't know exactly what or how it happened but I just remember waking up safely on land...

-

A pair of golden eyes opened slowly...a body of a teenager boy sat up the best he could, he was coughing, from the boy's mouth was coming water...he hit softly a hand against his chest so the whole water in his body would come out

He coughed and at the same time tried to get his breath back, he took deep breaths followed by spits of water...when he finally managed to calm down, he keep trying to get his breath back as he looked around...he wasn't any longer at the place he had drowned, he was safely on land, between trees...

"H-How...?" murmured Sulfus as he kept looking around "How did I end up here..? I thought that I...had drowned" that's when he heard it, a soft murmur...water...the river's water...he was on land but not too far away from the water, moreover, he was standing at the edge of the river, the water was touching softly his toes, his clothes were a bit thorn up...

Sulfus tried to sit up better but his body was still too sore, the back of his head hurt too...he must have hit his head on a rock or something like that...he put his hand on the place it hurt and then looked at it...it wasn't bleeding...

"Argh...but it hurts so much..." he complained...then he heard another murmur, coming from the water this time stronger than the last murmur, like someone kicking

He raised his eyes and looked around, he saw a figure under the water, a white figure...very similar to the one he had seen in the woods before the accident had happened...he tried once again to sit up better, supporting his body with his elbows against the land where he was laying...he wanted to find out who that figure was...

That's when he saw it...he saw a blonde head emerging from the water... extremely long blonde hair was floating on the water...the head emerged fully and that's when he realized...it was a girl...

"A girl...?" murmured Sulfus...he had never seen her before..."H-Hey you!" he called

The girl turned her face in his direction and he saw...her eyes were sapphire blue...those eyes widened when she saw him and immediately she started swimming to the other side of the land. Sulfus didn't know where he got the strength to stand up but in fact he did and he run towards the water but the girl had already reached the other side, the water was now by Sulfus' knees

"Wait!" he yelled, she held herself against a tree that was near her and turned her face to him, her white dress was all stuck against her wet body due to being all wet as well, her long blonde hair dripped water, her blue eyes showed fear. The girl hid a bit behind the same tree but she still could see him, Sulfus had stopped walking when the water started hitting against his knees, he was still weak and couldn't find the strength to swim after her right now...but his amber eyes never left the sight of the mysterious girl

"Listen, I don't want to hurt you" he said in a safe tone but the girl quickly run between the trees of the woods "Wait I just..!" he yelled but it was in vain, the girl had already disappeared, leaving no trace behind her..."I just wanted to know who are you...were you the one...who saved me...?" he murmured without taking his eyes away from the place where once the girl had stood...

TBC...

**A/N: Please review!**


	2. Meeting the Paradise

**The Waterfall's Nymph**

**Chapter 2 – Meeting the Paradise**

Sulfus stayed there, with the water by his knees, staring at the place where that golden haired girl once had been…always with the same questions wandering around his head…

Who was she?

Why did she run away from him?

Was she the one who saved him from drowning?

He knew he hadn't been dragged by the steam, a branch was holding his leg back in that moment that had been one of the reasons he couldn't keep himself in the surface, and he had lost his consciousness when he stayed too much time under the water PLUS the branch kept pulling him down…but if it had been that girl saving his life…why would she run away from him like that as if he was a monster?

He held his head, it still hurt…plus he still had to find a way to return home…he had to know if his friends were safe and alright, if they had managed to get on land safely…

He looked around; he was between trees, probably in the deepest part of the forest! Which mean…the so called labyrinth…

"Great…I just needed this, how am I supposed to find a way back home if I'm STUCK in this labyrinth!" he complained, the forest was so empty that his voice echoed through the air, he sighed and walked out the river, back to land…

Wait…the river! That's it! Maybe if he followed the river he could find his way back home!

Sulfus looked at the direction the river was taking…it run towards the right…which mean that he had to walk to the left, because when they were in that trip, the boat was floating with the steam and not against it. The young teenager started climbing up the hill, always following the contrary direction of the river; he climbed and climbed until he finally got at the top of the biggest hill, he turned around, seeing the view from up there…all he could see in front of his eyes were trees and more trees, big trees, a true forest standing in front of him…

He sighed again and shook his head, it wasn't the right time to stay there watching beautiful sights, soon it would be night and he didn't know nor did he wanted to know what could happen if he was still in the forest when that moment arrived…he had heard lots of rumors that lately wolves have been wandering around the forest at night…he shivered a little, he didn't want to be eye to eye with the wolves! He had to get back home as soon as he could…

He keep following the river until he came face to face with the place where the accident had happened…and the boat was still there, attached to the land, a bit destroyed. As fast as he could, the boy run up towards the ship and jumped inside it

"Gas! Cabiria! Kabale!" he yelled, calling for his friends but there was no sight of them, the ship wasn't that big that he couldn't see them if they were in there…he still looked inside the cabin but knew nobody was there, the cabin was too small for the three of them to be in there and he would have noticed them if they were unconscious…having walked that whole way through the river, Sulfus didn't see anyone in the river so he believed that his friends had been able to come back home safely…

He jumped out the ship and started walking again, he knew it would take a while to get home but at last he was already away enough from that labyrinth. He keep following the river until he finally saw the place where he and his friends had been before beginning the boat trip, he sighed relieved. From there on Sulfus run, following now the familiar path that would lead him to his home.

When was close enough to his home, the boy could now see figures not too far away from him, familiar figures…three of them belonged to two girls and a boy, in front of them stood three other figures, one was of a tall man, the second of a woman who reached the man's shoulder and the third was a little girl who was holding the woman's skirt.

Those people were no other than his three friends, parents and little sister! Happy to see them again and to find out his friends were fine, the boy run up to them, calling them

"Everyone!" he called, he had called so loud that his voice caught the attention of everyone, they all turned their faces in his direction and the depressed expressions in all those faces disappeared, being immediately replaced by a happy and relieved one

"Sulfus!" yelled the woman as she run to him, as soon as she got near him she hugged him really tightly but it was nothing that the seventeen year old boy couldn't handle, he too hugged his mother as she cried of happiness "Oh my dear son, I'm so relieved! I thought I had lost you, you don't know how worried I was when your friends told me that you fell in the river and the steam took you away!"

The boy caressed the long dark hair, which were the same color as his, of his mothers, trying to calm her down "Calm down mom, I'm alright and here now" he murmured, Seraph let him go still with tears in her orange red eyes but smiled happily as she touched her son's face, she was so relieved he was alright

"Big brother!" yelled the family's youngest one as she jumped in her older brother's arms, he smiled and hugged her too, she was crying out of fear but also happiness…she was extremely close to her brother and was really scared that she wouldn't see him again

The ones who also hugged him as soon as Elisabeth let him go were his friends and girlfriend, the last one covered his face with tons of kisses, so many that he had to pull her away

"Ok, ok Kabale, I know you were very worried but you can let me go now, alright?" he said, she pouted

"But I was so worried!"

"I know you were but I'm here now, all I need is to rest a bit" he said, his friends nodded immediately, understanding the situation

"But…how were you able to save yourself? We saw you disappearing in the middle of the waters!" exclaimed Cabiria

"I.." he was about to say that he had been saved by a mysterious girl but…what if she had been a fruit of his imagination…? And plus nobody would believe that someone would be in the deepest part of the forest without getting lost! "I'm not really sure…I just remember waking up safely on land and nothing else. Probably I was dragged away by the steam…"

"I see" said his father "Well, we better leave him to rest, just like he said it was a very long day" they all nodded, Sulfus' friends said goodbye and went home while the young boy and his family went home.

Sulfus sighed as he entered in his room, he closed the door behind him and walked up to his bed where he immediately jumped to and laid down…that girl was still wandering in his mind…wherever he looked at she was there…her long blonde hair, her blue eyes, her tan skin, her lips…everything

"Aaaaahhhh I'm driving crazy!" he screamed suddenly as he put his hands on his head and shook it, he was now sitting up on the bed "Get a grip on yourself Sulfus Zolfanello, you have got a girlfriend and a life ahead of you, you are not going to stay here thinking about some other girl that run away scared from you!" he let his body fall heavily on the bed, then he turned around and closed his eyes, having decided to have a good rest after that long day…

It was in the middle of the night when Sulfus woke up sweating, a bit startled…again he dream of her…it was the third time on that night! It was always the same dream! Always the same girl who danced around in the waters of a waterfall, dressed in a beautiful white dress with a white rose on her long golden hair that danced around gracefully together with her movements and it would always end up with the girl reaching out her hand towards him…

"This has got to end…tomorrow I'm going there, I must find out if she is real or not…" with that he laid down again…trying to go back to sleep…

On the next morning Sulfus woke up early, which surprised both his parents because the young teenager was a boy who enjoyed sleeping till late

"And may we know where are you going in such a rush?" asked Edan

"I'm going to take a walk around there but I'm not sure when I will be back" he answered, his mother frowned a bit, worried

"Be careful with what you are going to put yourself into, Sulfus…wasn't what happened yesterday enough for you?"

"Relax mom, I promise I won't get myself in trouble or that I won't come back home with my clothes all thorn up"

"Sulfus!" scolded Seraph "Don't you play with serious things!"

"Ok, ok, I'm sorry, geez…" he stood up from the table and grabbed the small backpack that he had got ready with some food since he didn't know how long he would take until he found that girl again, with that he walked out the door, leaving his parents behind with a questionable look but also worried

"What is that boy planning…" murmured his mother

Sulfus walked through the same path that he had followed yesterday when he was trying to find his way back home, it took him about an hour until he reached the place where he found himself at once he had woken up after the accident…seeing he was reaching that zone, he started walking silently as possible…if she was really there, he didn't want to scare her before he had time enough to approach her…

He hid behind a tree and looked at the river…everything seemed calm…he waited a couple of minutes and nothing seemed to happen…he sighed disappointed as he let his body fall on the grass while his back rested against the tree's trunk

"Who am I kidding…she isn't real, I'm sure it was just a simple-"he was interrupted when he heard the same murmur he had heard yesterday, the splashing on the water…

Immediately he turned around and got on his knees, not taking his eyes from the river…and that's when he saw the same he had seen on the previous day, the same white figure with long blonde hair emerging from the deepest waters of the river, he watched carefully her expression…she looked…so happy, relaxed…as if swimming was the reason of her happiness…he decided to not make any movement for now, he wanted to watch her for a while…

The girl swam towards the opposite riverside and stepped out of the water, obviously she was completely wet, again with her white dress glued to her tan skin and with her long golden hair dripping water, giving it a wavy look…

As the girl moved, Sulfus would change from tree to tree, always being careful to see where his feet touched so he wouldn't step on anything that snapped and startled her…he knew that if called her like he had done yesterday she would get scared and would run away once again…so he decided to not do it this time, he wanted to approach her enough…

The girl swirled around a couple of times as if she was dancing while her bare feet would touch the fresh grass of the forest…when he less excepted, Sulfus found himself completely fascinated by such beauty…he was completely enchanted with her…he had to admit…he had never seen such a beautiful girl like that one…not even Kabale or Cabiria had such beauty…

He decided to approach a bit more, again trying to be the most silently he could be only this time, when he was near enough her, his tennis accidentally stepped on a small branch that was on the grass, snapping it in two, which made the sound echo…he saw the girl stop dancing and turn around in his direction, he saw all that happiness and relax in her sapphire blue eyes turning into fear, the smile on her face also disappeared as she started taking a few steps back…

Seeing this, Sulfus knew he had to react fast or he would lose her like he did yesterday "No, wait, I'm not going to hurt" but the girl didn't listen to him and started running towards the same direction she had taken yesterday…"Oh no, you won't escape this time!" he exclaimed as he started running after her

The girl didn't look back but she could feel, through his steps, that he was following her very fast, she tried to run faster but she had already reached her limit, sometimes she would trip on her own feet, losing her balance, but it wasn't enough for him to be able to catch her

When Sulfus noticed, he was already in another deepest part of the forest but this didn't made him stop…then he saw the girl entering inside of what seemed to be a cavern whose half of the entrance was blocked by a huge rock, the boy had to shrink himself a little bit so he could enter inside the cavern and with some difficulty he managed to do it

Hoping he hadn't lose her again, the boy run through the cavern, it was really big…he run and run until he finally saw a light at the end…the light became more intense and bright as he approached even more the end of the cavern, when Sulfus stepped out he had to cover his eyes with his arm due to the sun

As soon as he got used to the light, he uncovered his eyes and what he saw made him widen his eyes

"By God…what…what is this…?" he murmured as he looked around him…it was beautiful…that was the Paradise…everything was full of life, even more life than the forest itself! The sun shined intensely, the grass was lively, green and shining, birds, butterflies flew freely between the huge trees but what fascinated him even more was what was standing right before his eyes…the waterfall! It was beautiful, falling graciously onto the blue river, huge, strong and shiny…

And that's when he remembered the girl again, he took his eyes away from the view of the Paradise he had just found and started looking for her, he saw her figure running between the bushes…he started running after her, trying to find a shortcut to catch her but he didn't know this place quietly well and so he didn't know what kind of surprises could be hidden behind all that beauty…

That is when he had an idea…he stopped running and hide behind one of the biggest trees whose trunk was extremely large. He saw the girl disappearing between some bushes and crouching down…he smiled, his plan was going to work…a couple of minutes passed and he made no movement that showed the girl that he was in that place…but he keep looking at her…and he finally saw her sigh and stepping out of the bushes…

The girl looked around still with that fearful look in her eyes…her hand was upon her chest as the girl keep looking around herself, making sure the boy wasn't really there…without noticing she walked by the tree where Sulfus was hidden and luckily she didn't see him…he chuckled and followed her silently…

And when the girl less excepted…

He jumped at her!

He and the girl fell on the grass, she immediately turned around staying now face to face with the young teenager boy, he had her arms pinned down to her sides, so she wouldn't move…the teenager girl looked at him with full fear in her eyes which made Sulfus flinch a little, her eyes were shining with fear! Did he scare her that much?

"Easy…easy…I'm not nor I want to hurt you, ok?" the girl shook her head in fear "Look at me, look at me in the eyes and tell me if I'm lying to you"

The girl calmed down a little and looked Sulfus in the eyes…golden with sapphire…sun and sea…the young girl seemed to be lost in those pools of golden…but then she broke the contact and looked away

"So? Do you think I am lying to you?" she didn't answer…"Why won't you answer me?" she shook her head "Do you think I'm lying to you?" again she shook her head "Then what is it? Why you don't answer me?"

She slowly looked back at him…and slowly she managed to free one arm from his hands, she placed her hand upon her throat and slowly shook her head again. Sulfus' golden eyes widened in shock and realization as he finally understood what she meant with that gesture…

"You…are…mute…?"

TBC…


	3. Daughter of the Wolves

**The Waterfall's Nymph**

**Chapter 3 – Daughter of the Wolves**

The boy immediately let go the poor and scared long haired girl. She as soon as she got herself rid of his grip, crawled out under him and run behind one of the threes…Sulfus did nothing this time to catch her, he just stood there still shocked with the information he had just got a few seconds ago…

She was mute! She couldn't talk! Obviously he had nothing against it, why should he? What was disturbing him in that moment was he, himself, him and his latest actions towards the girl! He had sworn to her for all that was most sacred that he didn't want to hurt her but instead he had captured her, he had scared her, he had yelled at her but above all of that he had pressured her to answer his questions when the poor girl couldn't do that!

He felt bad…really bad…bad and ashamed…he just wanted to find out who she really was and ended up acting like some mad guy! Now yes he understood why that girl was scared of him…

He sighed and stood up from the grass, he looked at the tree where a few moments ago she had hid behind…he had to do something to compensate her, because for some reason he didn't want her to be afraid of him. He walked at the other side of the tree and came face to face with the shrunk figure of the girl. She was laying against the trunk with her knees laying against her chest and her arms wrapped around them, her face was hidden between the knees, he tensed…not just because he was seeing that shrunk figure but also because he was seeing the girl's body shaking, even though no sob could be heard, he knew she was crying…this time he had really scared her…

Sulfus felt bad once again, he had to apologize to her due to his actions but he had to do it in a way that wouldn't scare her even more…he kneeled down and sat down in front of the girl "Hey…" he started, biting lightly his lower lip…he moved his hand towards one of her arms and touched it lightly with the tip of his fingers, she quickly raised her head, revealing her face covered in tears, scared she tried to lean back even more against the trunk of the tree "No, no, take…take it easy please! I swear that I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to apologize because of what I did to you back there, it wasn't my intention to scare you, I just wanted to know who you were"

Somehow the girl seemed to have calmed down when she heard those words and that made Sulfus sigh in relief, alright he had been able to apologize…what now? Just then he remembered a question he wanted to do to her "Hum…may I…may I ask you a question…?" she looked at him with a curious look "Were…were you the one who saved me yesterday? From…you know…from drowning? In the river…"

Little by little he saw the girl nodding "Then…why did you run away from me when I called you…? Did I scare you that much?" she put a forefinger upon her red lips and had a funny thoughtful look, this almost made Sulfus laugh a bit but he stopped himself from doing that because he knew she was trying to find a way to communicate with him since she couldn't use the words. Suddenly the girl pointed at him…well, not quietly him, she was most likely pointing at his face, his eyes…the boy became confused

"Uh…my face…?" he asked "You were scared of my face?" the girl shook her head and keep moving her forefinger in the direction of his face, Sulfus still couldn't understand what she wanted to tell him with that so she leaned forward a bit and approached the finger to one of his eyes, they by instinct closed and the boy leaned back to avoid her from putting the finger right in his eye. After recovering from the sudden movement she had made, the raven haired boy finally seemed to have understood the message "You were scared of my eyes?" she nodded and he raised an eyebrow, even more confused…why in the world was she scared of his eyes? What was wrong with them?

"I still don't understand…you are scared of my eyes? What is wrong with them?" the girl wrapped her arms around herself and looked down, the boy still didn't understand what she meant by that…

'_This girl is really weird…but why do I feel this need to communicate with her…? Why I don't want…to give up…?'_ he thought…he didn't know…he sighed…it was hard to communicate with her by simple gestures, most of the gestures she did, to him were indecipherable…how was he supposed to communicate with her if he couldn't understand what she wanted to tell him…? Unless…

"Hey girl, do you know how to write?" the girl cocked her head to the side with a curious look as she saw him taking off his back the small backpack he had, he started searching for something inside the bag until he finally took out a pencil and a small notepad, she keep looking at him curious as she watched him scribbling something on the sheets of that notepad, a few seconds later he showed her what he had done…"Do you know how to do something like this?" something was written there…she cocked her head once again and after a few moments of silence she looked back at him still with the same look, taking her celestial eyes off of the sheets

He sighed and crawled next to her, he gave her the pencil and the notepad "Try to write something in there" however the girl just stared at the two objects in her hands, she looked at the pencil and touched a couple of times on the tip of it, then she flipped the white sheets of the notepad again and again, Sulfus raised an eyebrow as he watched this…she looked like a baby, like a child playing with that…it was like…she was acting as if…

"Have you never seen something like this…?" he murmured, she heard him and took off her attention from the objects and then shook her head, he found this extremely weird…the girl should have more or less the same age as him! How was it possible that she had never seen or even not know what a pencil and a notepad were? "Have you never seen this either?" he said as he picked up on the bag he had on his lap, she looked at it for a few moments and once again she shook her head, this shocked Sulfus even more…this couldn't be…"Do you mean…that you have never been at any place...besides the forest? Have you never seen the town, or even the other people?" she again shook her head

"B-But how?" he couldn't believe that something like this could be possible…how was it possible that such a young girl has never seen nothing or anyone in her entire life besides the trees of the forest? Could it be that she has always lived here? Maybe but…since when? Was it possible to survive by herself on the forest? The boy was so confused that he allowed his body to fall backwards heavily on the green grass, he sighed and closed his eyes still trying to internalize that recent information…he had discovered so many things about this girl in so few hours…he had discovered she was mute, he had discovered she didn't know how to write, he had discovered she didn't know anything about the modern and current world and specially he had discovered that she had never been beyond the forest…

Then he heard a hollow sound, has if someone had just fallen heavily on the grass just like he had done a few moments ago, he looked at his side and saw the girl laying down exactly on the SAME position as he was, he saw her turning her head to him

He raised an eyebrow…she did the same

He blinked…she did the same

Alright…this was getting weird…he stood up and sat down again…and she once again did the same gestures as he did

OK it was official…either she was making fun of him or she was trying to learn something

He got on his knees and approached her, she repeated the same gesture and when they noticed their faces were close to each other, the boy became a bit embarrassed due to such closeness…he was about to back up when suddenly he heard something that was coming behind him…

A growl…

Many growls…not friendly at all…startled when he heard this, the raven haired boy turned around slowly and his amber eyes widened in shock, surprise and fear as he saw what was standing right behind him…

It was nothing more…nothing less than…

A pack of wolves…

Wolves with grey fur and deep blue eyes, very sharp teeth as well as their claws, their fur was spiked…they were at last six wolves, without counting with the small cubs that were hiding behind the adults…they seemed very mad…

Slowly Sulfus stood up, trying to not make any kind of rough movement that could anger the wolves even more, he had never been face to face with a wolf before, let alone with a whole pack, but he knew perfectly that they were wild and very dangerous creatures that could tear your throat apart in a matter of seconds…or at least that's what he has been told…

The wolf standing in front of the whole pack growled again…it must be the alpha male…the growling was so strong that Sulfus' skin became chicken skin, he tried not to move, moreover he couldn't even move! He was completely paralyzed, never had he so much fear in his life before!

When the less excepted, the alpha jumped at him, both fell on the grass with the enormous wolf on the top of the boy, he barely had time to protect himself from the attack! But he had been able at last to put his arms in front of his body, blocking part of the attack but even with that the sharp claws had pierced his skin. The wolf opened his huge mouth, showing his big and sharp teeth, Sulfus' eyes widened in fear

He found himself thinking if it had been better to have died yesterday from drowning or if it was better to die at the claws of a fierce wolf and his pack…he came to the conclusion that none of them were good options! He didn't want to die! Not now, not yet! God had given him a second opportunity to live again on the day before by sending that girl to save him but now he was face to face with a new danger that could tear him apart in seconds!

Suddenly, and when he less excepted, the blonde haired girl pushed the wolf away from him, the wolf had seemed to not have complained with that gesture of the girl. Sulfus tried to sit up but he barely could move his arms, they were completely scratched! However it wasn't this that was catching his attention at the moment…what was catching his attention was the girl standing in front of him with a determinate look on her celestial blue eyes, she was staring angrily at the wolf and he seemed to have stopped growling even though his fur was still all spiked…

He saw her shaking her head a few times, then her eyes became more soft and sweet as she kneeled down, standing now on her knees in front of the wolf. The move she made next surprised Sulfus more than ever! She extended her arms towards the huge wolf and her hands touched the downy and grey fur of the animal, he saw her caressing the fur and then the creature approaching her and licking her face with his huge tongue, she smiled big and if it wasn't for her to not have voice, Sulfus could swear that she was laughing at that moment…

"But how…" murmured the boy in disbelief…the other wolves quickly joined the alpha male and the girl hugged them all, happy, caressing their fur as they licked her face…he still couldn't believe in what his eyes were showing him…they were treating her like she was one of them…as if she was part of the pack…as if…as if…

As if she was their daughter…

Then the girl let off of the animals and turned to him, she approached him and took his hands. She helped him standing up from the grass and took him to the lake where the waterfall fell; she made him sit down and took his scratched arms

Sulfus sighed "My mother is going to kill me when I go back home like this, she will never let me leave the house ever again!" he complained, the girl smiled and then tore off a piece of her white dress, she wetted it on the lake's water and then wrinkled it a bit, the boy looked at her confused…after that she wrapped the wet piece of dress around his scratches. At first Sulfus closed his eyes due to having felt a small ardor when the water touched the wounds but as the seconds went on…he couldn't feel anything…he didn't felt any ardor anymore, he didn't felt any pain…the girl took off the piece of cloth off his arms and to say that Sulfus was shocked wasn't enough!

His wounds were gone like by magic! They had disappeared, without leaving any trace behind, there were no scars, there was no blood, nothing! How was this possible? The raven haired boy, still shocked, looked at the girl…

"How did you…" the girl smiled sweetly at him and then pointed at the water "The water…the water has healed me…?" the girl nodded "How…" he murmured still not believing that his wounds had disappeared without any trace…was it possible that the water was magic…? No…magic didn't exist right…? Oh he didn't know anymore! A few minutes went on and the silence filled that place, the wolves had sit down on the grass, the cubs were playing with each other under the attentive look of their parents.

Just then she pulled a bit of his shirt to catch his attention, he looked at her, getting the message "Yes?" she pointed again at the water and then spread her arms up, pointing at everything that surrounded them and finally placed her forefinger upon her red lips, he blinked a bit trying to get the message she was trying to tell him…he looked at the water, then at the place they were, remembering what had happened a few moments ago "You want…I mean you don't want me to tell anyone about this place? About this water?" she nodded a few times

Sulfus smiled kindly and nodded "Alright, I promise. I swear!" and then he tangled one of his pinky fingers with one of hers, she looked at him confused and curious at the same time, wondering what that meant, he smiled again at her "This is our way to seal our promise. I promise I won't tell anyone about this place and also that I will visit you every time I can. It's a promise" he smiled once more and this time she smiled back before she jumped at him and hugged him, making both of them fall on the grass

Sulfus laughed "You know something? I don't want to all you 'girl' forever so…I think I'm going to give you a name" the girl stared at him, what name would he give to her? "Hum…let's see…" he looked around himself, trying to get some inspiration for the name, for some reason he didn't want to give her a vulgar name…he wanted it to be something special…"I know! I think I'm going to call you Nymph…what do you think?" he asked, she answered him by smiling and hugging him again, he took that as a yes

TBC…

**A/N: Please leave reviews!**


	4. Only you

**The Waterfall's Nymph**

**Chapter 4 - Only you...**

He came back home by the sunset, he didn't had notice how fast the hours had gone, he had been so entertained speaking to Nymph in these last couple of hours, trying to explain to her what were the things he had brought in that day just as the backpack, the pencil and the notebook, and he had tried to explain to him what were they for. He laughed when he stared again at the sheets were the girl had wrote...or better say...scratched! That was nothing more than a couple of scratches! It made him remember the "drawings" Elisabeth used to do when she was younger.

He still didn't understand the reason why he was so interested in knowing her better, in showing her how the things in the world beyond the forest worked. Sulfus had the feeling that he had already seen her face in the past, her blue eyes, her blonde hair were somehow familiar to him, but he couldn't understand how could that be...it was...something impossible, her being familiar to him...because she had never left the forest...

He pushed away those thoughts from his mind and walked in home. He wasn't really hungry but he knew that if he didn't eat anything right now, later, in the middle of night, he would wake up hungry, so he choose to make a small effort and eat something. But something he was very sure, he was tired, since last he hadn't slept that well due to the successive dreams he had.

After warning his parents that he had returned and without delay to avoid them starting to ask him a bunch of questions like: Are you alright? Why did you take so long? etc..., he went to his room where he let his body sink in the mattress of his bed...he was so exhausted! It wasn't easy to do an hour and half of walk, back and forth, from his house to the forest and to the forest back home!

He sighed and closed his eyes, he had decided that from now on he would be taking his horse in his trips to the forest. He heard a small sound and looked at the bedside table, it came from his cellphone. He grabbed the object and saw the message that he had just received. It was from Kabale.

_'Do you want to come for a walk with me, tomorrow?'_

He allowed his head to fall hard upon the pillow, he didn't really want to go out with her...not at all! To him that relationship had died a long time ago...then why keep up with it? Why marry her, you ask? The answer is because he feels obligated to do so...ever since her father got him in that situation...

_Tok, Tok_

"Come in" he said still laying on his bed, he raised his head when the door closed, to see who it was. It was his mom. He laid the head again down on the pillow "I'm whole mom. You don't need to come check"

"Very funny" said Seraph as she sat upon the mattress of her son's bed "Where did you go today?"

"I went for walk" he answered calmly "I had told you, didn't I?"

"You know very well that it's not that what I'm talking about, young man" she said in a half serious tone, Sulfus rolled his eyes and sat up "You must have gone somewhere"

Sulfus remained in silence for a few moments, he knew that if he lied to her, she would find out with a mere look eye in the eye, yes...nothing seemed to escape his mother, she knew him well, after all, he was her son and a mother can understand certain things that other people can't understand.

"I..." he started "...can't say..." he confessed, looking away immediately

"Is it a girl?"

"Mom!" he exclaimed sounding on a hand surprised how fast she had found out but on the other he tried to sound incredulous as possible, trying to make her understand how "absurd" she was being "Where did you take that idea from?"

"I know you, Sulfus" she said, serious "For already 17 years I've known you very well, don't forget that you have been nine months inside of me"

"Still...I don't know where you took the idea, that I've been with a girl, from" said the young boy "Did you forget that I'm-"

"That you're engaged? Or better say, that you're chained to an engagement you don't even want to happen? No, Sulfus, unfortunately I didn't forget about that truth" Sulfus was a bit shocked with this kind of reaction of his mother, she wasn't like this...she was tender, sweet, understanding...but now...he could see the anguish and anger in her eyes...

"You don't have to go on with this. I may be the only one, but I know that you don't love Kabale like you loved before" Sulfus closed his eyes for a few moments before turning his head...

"I've got to do this for the sake of our family's name..." he murmured still without looking at his mother

"Sulfus!" tired of always hearing the same answer whenever she touched the engagement subject, Seraph took her son's face in between her hands and forced him to look at her, eye to eye "YOUR happiness comes above anything else, before knowing what people say about our family, I want to know, I want to make sure that YOU are happy! And I know that at the moment you are not" she leaned forward to kiss his forehead. Sulfus knew she was right, she was so right...he wasn't happy...but he felt that he didn't have any other choice but go on with this marriage...even if that meant to be unhappy...

The boy sighed "I..." he started "...can't tell you precisely where I have been today...because I promise to not tell anyone...but yes I have been with a girl but not in the way you might be thinking! I'm...helping her..."

Seraph was confused "Helping her in what...?" again he released a sigh...

"Do you remember when I told you yesterday that I was dragged by the stream of the river back to land...?" the woman nodded "It was a lie...I wasn't dragged by the stream...that girl...saved me from drowning...and...I didn't know if she was real or just from my imagination...so today I went to look for her and...I found her. I...found out a few things about her...she can't talk, she doesn't know anything about the outside world, she has always lived in the forest..." he looked at his mother "And from now on I want to help her find out about the things she doesn't know...it's kind of a favor that I owe her, for having saved my life"

"I see" murmured the mother, Sulfus looked down and held tightly the cellphone where it was still visible Kabale's message...

"Kabale sent me a message...for us to meet tomorrow...and I don't know if I should go with her and not go to Nymph-"

"Nymph?"

The boy shrugged "Because she can't talk, I thought I should at last give her name..." Seraph smiled a little "I don't know what to do..." the smile on his mother's face disappeared a little

"Well...if you do want to go on with this absurd engagement...then you should divide your time. You spent a little with Kabale and then the other piece with that Nymph girl"

"How? Kabale won't let me go"

"Lie to her. Tell her that you're tired or something like that and if she comes here insisting, don't worry that me and your sister will take care of it" she said, winking at him, Sulfus smiled and nodded. Again Seraph kissed his forehead "Now rest" she stood up from the mattress and walked up to the door...she smiled without him noticing it...and this smile was because she had a feeling, who knows perhaps it was a mother feeling, that sooner or later this "Nymph" would mean something more to Sulfus than just a mere girl whose her son feels like he owns her...

The next morning...just as planned, Sulfus met up with Kabale, at the moment they were taking a walk around the city, she had her arm wrapped around his and a smile on her lips. Every people of the city knew their families: Zolfanello and Rosso; because they were the most richest ones from the zone, there was once a third rich family...but that was another story...unfortunately these same people loved gossips and so they released a lot rumors, most of them were false but people being how they are believed in everything they were told, about the two families, something that deeply annoyed Sulfus.

It was because of these rumors that he was "chained" to that relationship that for a very long time has been sentenced to an end. Someone had released a rumor that the couple, even though they were just 17, would get married very soon. The situation became worse when many reporters appeared in the Zolfanello house and before Sulfus could deny such sudden engagement, Kabale's father, who was in their house at the moment, Edwin Rosso, confirmed for him the rumor, which got the boy in a very difficult situation, because Edwin must have known that he would do anything for his family name...

"It's a beautiful day to take a walk together, don't you think so Sulfus?" asked Kabale with a very in love look while they were watched by the people of the city

"Yes, it is" he answered...he wanted to go to Nymph and show her the new things he had planned or even get to know more about her...wait a moment...why does he want it so much? No...he couldn't...he shouldn't! There is no way! It was a mere and simple favor, just that...anyway...he had to find a way to go back home, go get his things and then go to the forest.

Bingo! He had an idea!

Suddenly the boy started coughing, stopping the walk, which made Kabale stop walking too, she stared at him "Are you okay, Sulfus?"

"N-No..." cough "I...am not..." cough "...feeling very well..." the young girl placed a hand upon his forehead

"You don't seem to have fever" she commented, Sulfus pretended to sneeze a couple of times

"I...ever since I fell in the river that I've been feeling weird...I must have caught a big cold" he said, lying, trying to sound the most truthful as he could "I'm sorry, but the walk will have to happen another day, I better go home before I have fever"

Kabale put her hands on her waist and had a disapproving look, which scared Sulfus for a few moments, hadn't she believe in his lie? "Now, if you weren't feeling well then you shouldn't even have left home!"

Deep inside he sighed of relief "I...didn't want to bother you, not even ruin the walk, besides I almost didn't feel sick at all...I wasn't excepting to get worse so suddenly..." he said, adding another fake cough

Kabale leaned in and kissed his cheek "I would rather wait for the walk a few days and you be okay than having you laying down on a bed with high fever" hearing this, Sulfus felt a small punch on his chest...he was starting to feel bad for laying to her...she truly loved him, feelings that a few years ago he too had felt for her...but that now had died...

Not wanting to lie to her any longer, the boy nodded and retired as fast as he could, he had to go back home to get his backpack and then discretely go to the stables that belonged to his family to get Basilisk, his horse.

He entered home and was about to go upstairs to get his belongings when he came face to face with his mother who was holding his backpack, she was smiling at him which he smiled too while taking the object from her hands and putting it on his back, he thanked his mother, who answered him with a kiss on the head, before going to the back door of the house, path that would take him to the stables. When he entered there, he saw all the horses of his family, each one of their own stall.

He walked up to the first stall and inside there stood a big black horse. Sulfus opened the door and walked up to the horse, he caressed his mane "It has been a while since I last rode you" he murmured as he took the reins that were hanging on the wall of the stall, he put them on the horse and then put on the saddle, saddling the animal. He grabbed the reins and slowly pulled him out of the stable, looking around to make sure nobody saw him since he was supposed to be sick.

The boy got on the majestic animal and guided him out of there. He jumped the small fence that surrounded the zone of the stables and guided the animal towards the forest. He had missed riding Basilisk, it has been months, no...almost a year, since he last rode him! Riding that creature made him feel free as he run, usually, without a destiny but now he had one.

Usually when he went through that path by feet, he would take about an hour and half, but now he had just took about twenty minutes, yes, Basilisk was still fast as he remembered. When he got to the cavern he noticed the entry that usually was covered by a big rock had now a bigger entry. He smiled...Nymph had done what he asked her to do yesterday before he left, he had told her that from now on he would be taking his horse there and for that the entry would have to be bigger so the animal could fit in and enter.

He grabbed Basilisk's reins and took him inside the cavern, in a few minutes they were on the other side, he looked around, there was no sign of the wolves, probably must have gone hunt to the forest. When he got near the lake, he tied up the reins around the branch of a tree and approached the edge of the lake, he sat down on the grass before placing two fingers inside his mouth and whistle loud, the sound echoed through the place and even scared a few birds who flew away. This was another thing he and Nymph had settled, once she heard his whistle, it meant that he had arrived.

He looked around but didn't see her "Hey! Nymph it's me!" he yelled, his voice once again echoed through the place, a few minutes went on and he keep looking around him, looking for her. And that's when he saw her, there she was, on the top of the big waterfall that should have 15 meters in height! She waved at him and he smiled, waving back "Come on, get down!" he saw her nodding, then she disappeared from his point of view which made him think she was using a path to get down the waterfall.

But what he less excepted happened, he saw the girl again but only for a few seconds because she jumped, literally, down the waterfall. Sulfus' amber eyes widened "Are you crazy? I didn't-!"

_SPLASH_

"...meant for you to get down like that..." he completed the phrase, now soaked wet from his head to his feet...however he had seen the graceful way Nymph had fallen in the water. Speaking of her...where was she? He didn't see her stepping out of the water but nothing was showing either that she was still down there "Uh...Nymph?" he murmured as he looked around...no answer "Nymph?" this time he approached the crystal water but saw no silhouette...he sat back down on his knees and crossed his arms "You better be ok because I'm not-!"

_SPLASH_

The dark haired boy came to the surface as fast as he could, spitting out water, in front of him appeared the blonde hair of Nymph followed by her face, well half of it since she had the other half in the water as she made bubbles. Sulfus opened his eyes and looked at her a bit angry.

"This was not funny, you scared the hell out of me!" she simply keep up making bubbles underwater, the boy could have sworn that even his own horse was laughing from his situation, Sulfus pointed at him "And YOU, shut up!" he turned back to Nymph "Are you going to stay there making bubbles?" as soon as he said that he received a spit of water right on his face, she smiled e put a facial expression that indicated she was laughing from his face "Oh so you want to play? You have messed with the wrong person, girly!"

He started splashing her with the water and she did the same to him, he laughed as he splashed her and could see the funny expression on her face, if she had a voice she would for sure be laughing as much as he was. The blonde haired girl stopped splashing him and tried to swim to the edge "Don't you think you're going to get there before me!" he swam after her and once she tried to get out of water, he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her back in the water, he let her go and tried to do the same she did before but the girl grabbed his by the shirt and pulled him back just like he had done to her.

The game of the two went on for long minutes, both not seeming to get tired from such a game, on the contrary, they seemed to be having lots of fun. Now they were both sitting on the edge, she smiling and he couldn't stop laughing, they were both soaked wet! He shook his head a couple of times which sent a few drops, coming from his dark hair, towards her, she put her hands in front of her as if trying to protect her body from the water. He stopped laughing and sighed.

"Great, I'm soaked wet" he said without stopping to smile "I better take off my shirt before I get seriously ill" and he did that, he took his short sleeved grey shirt, without noticing the girl was staring down at him as he did this, he didn't even noticed she was blushing a little before the view of that marble chest. He stood up and grabbed the wet shirt, putting it on the same branch he had tied up the reins of his horse, he caressed his mane and turned towards Nymph who was looking between him and Basilisk with hesitation "Come here, he won't hurt you" she, little by little, did as she was told and approached the animal. Sulfus took her hand in his and slowly approached it to the horse's mane, he moved his hand in sync with hers, caressing the animal, he slowly released the girl's hand and let her explore the soft black fur of the creature.

He smiled when he saw her approach her face to the horse's mane and lay it in that same place, he had no more doubts that she had a special connections with animals, she loved them, no doubt of it...and that was visible in the way she treated her dear wolves, animals that once he had been told that were cruel and savage creatures but that he now knew they were like only to protect each other and if nobody meant to harm them, they wouldn't harm them either...

He suddenly frowned and his smile disappeared...his happy look was replaced by a painful, sad, melancholic one...but he still didn't stop looking at Nymph...Nymph...why did she remind him so much of _her_...? They were very similar in look, he had to admit that...but now even her attitude was similar...he missed her...that person that was taken away from him too soon...that important person to him, so fragile, so innocent, so young...who left too soon...she was so small, barely had time to explore the life...he couldn't even say goodbye to her. Sulfus closed his eyes painfully, trying to push away those thoughts away from his mind...

That's when he felt something soft snuggling in him, he looked down and came face to face with two wolf cubs snuggling in his legs, the smile returned to his lips as he crouched down and caressed their grey fur, the small cubs cuddled in his hand and licked it, he laughed a little. He sat down and the two cubs jumped on his lap, he keep caressing them under the happy and sweet look of Nymph who had never stopped to look at the scene.

The two cubs started jumping on him and licking him, he laughed and fell backwards while the two animals keep playing with him "Ok, ok, that's enough, it tickles!" he said between laughs, Nymph walked up to him and picked up one of the cubs who moved his little paws happily, they looked like two puppies, Sulfus stood up and held the other cub.

"They're cute..." he said, smiling "and very playful" the girl smiled and took his hand that wasn't holding the small cub, she started guiding him through a path, which gave some curiosity to Sulfus, they seemed to be walking in circles but in truth they were walking on a spiral hill. Soon they reached the top and the boy quickly understood that they were in the same place where she had been before she had jumped down the waterfall. Both approached the edge and sat down there, each one still holding a cub, Sulfus smiled before the beauty that stood before his eyes, that place was for sure magnificent...and...somehow it gave him peace, without any pressure on his shoulders, when he was there...unlike when he went outside and felt again the pressure of the eyes of society and his engagement on him...

He sighed as he continued to look at the view, a small breeze moved through his rebel hair "So..." Nymph looked at him just as he looked at her "...this is your world..." he murmured, a smile appeared on the girl's lips and she nodded, he went back to look at what was standing in front of his eyes "It's...beautiful...and very pacific..." he closed his eyes "You know...sometimes I wish I could be free like you are...to not have any kind of worries under me and be just a free spirit like you are..." Nymph took one of his hands and smiled at him, a small smile appeared on Sulfus' lips while a small thought crossed his mind...

_'You remind me of her a lot...only her could make me feel like this and now it's only you who can do it...could it be...that you represent her spirit...?'_

TBC...


	5. Hunting the Wolves

**The Waterfall's Nymph**

**Chapter 5 – Hunting the Wolves**

The months went on and the meetings between Sulfus and Nymph were increasingly frequent, naturally with a little help of Seraph and Elisabeth. The boy, however, refused to believe that he was starting to feel more for the young girl beyond the friendship that had formed between them, insisting in keeping up with the relationship he had with Kabale. Nymph knew now a little bit more of the world where her new friend lived and in exchange he too knew every spot, even the most hidden, of the place where she lived.

However the meetings began to be suspicious by Kabale, who found very strange the fact her boyfriend, would rather stay at home "studying", now that school had begun again, instead of going out with her and the others. Now winter had arrived and with it the cold, so it was already visible the people with their warm jackets walking around the streets and the smoke coming from the chimneys created by the fireplaces that warmed up the houses.

The bell rang announcing the end of the classes and in less than a few minutes the schoolyard that before was empty, was now filled with teens. Sulfus was unlocking his motorbike and ready to get on it when Kabale together with Cabiria and Gas approached him.

"Hey, Sulfus, we're going for a walk and have a snack at the café, want to come with us?" asked his girlfriend

"Sorry but I'm not on it today" he answered, Kabale frowned and crossed her arms

"Today? You're not on it today? What about the other days, that you've said exactly the same thing?"

Sulfus sighed, annoying with the railings of the girl "Kabale, low your voice! Nobody needs to know about the things of my private life. So what? I don't feel like going out..."

"Oh of course now you're like a nerd who stays at home studying! You weren't like this, Sulfus, before you didn't even want to pick up a book, it seemed more like you were allergic to studying and now you lock yourself at home! What are you hiding from me? Are you by any chance going out with another behind my back?" she yelled

Sulfus stood up, since back then he was kneeling down, and grabbed tightly the girl by her arm, pulling her to him, their faces only a few centimeters away from the other, an anger look filled his amber eyes "First: I'm not nor I'm turning into a nerd just because I've decided to study. Because just in case you haven't noticed, the exams are very near, and unlike you I don't need 'daddy' to corrupt the teachers to make me pass on the exams. Second: You better low your voice tone because the last thing I need is to hear more rumors about my private life and have the reporters knocking at my door!"

"Let me go, you're hurting me!" she yelled but the boy just held her tighter

"And I'll keep hurting if you keep speaking out loud" he answered calmly, Kabale decided then to remain shut and after making sure of it, Sulfus let go of her arm and returned to his motorbike. Without saying another single word, the boy got on the motorbike and left the school, riding back home. He soon got there, placed the motorbike inside the garage and went in home by the door that gives direct access to the garage.

He went upstairs and entered in his room where he started packing up some things inside the backpack he usually took to the forest. Someone knocked at the door and after he gave permission to come in, Seraph did, closing the door behind her.

"Are you going already?" she asked, trying to hide her happiness tone

"Yes" he answered as he closed the backpack; his mother walked up to him and gave him something

"Take her this, it's starting to snow and for sure she doesn't have anything to protect herself from this cold" she said giving him a white jacket, the boy smiled and grabbed it "I wanted to ask you something"

"What is it?" he said raising an eyebrow

"I've heard that this year winter is going to be colder than the usual and I didn't want you to keep doing these trips back and forth to the forest...I was thinking...if you think it's a good idea to have her spend the winter with us" Sulfus widened his eyes slightly before the suggestion

"Are you serious?" said the boy, the mother answered with a nod "Well...I think it's a good idea but it won't be easy to convince her, she is very attached to the forest"

"I understand but even if she comes here, it doesn't mean you can't take her sometimes back to the forest. I'm not just saying this to protect her from the cold but also for her to understand better how the things on this side work, I think she would learn faster if she saw it with her own eyes"

The boy thought about these words, in fact his mother was right...Nymph could learn things better, even the most complicated, if she saw them working with her own eyes and not only with him explaining to her, something that was difficult "I think you're right, when I meet up with her, I'll tell her that" Seraph smiled and the boy grabbed his things, going to the stables.

He was about to take Basilisk from the stables when he heard two whispers, two voices, of two men he managed to deduce that "So are you ready for the hunt?" said one of them, the other smirked and put the shotgun over his shoulder, a cigarette in his mouth

"Of course I am! Let's shot out some of these wild wolves" he answered "They'll give a great carpet on the floor of my house!" the two of them laughed, however Sulfus remained paralyzed after hearing that chat...his eyes widened in shock as he held the reins tightly

'_Hunt...the wolves...? That means...no...Nymph!'_

As fast as he could he got on the horse and run towards the forest, praying with all his might that it wouldn't be too late, he had to protect them, the wolves and Nymph, if she was accompanying the animals then for sure she too would be caught in one of the traps...he couldn't let that happen, now she wasn't any longer just a girl he was in doubt with, but a friend, a great friend, he felt that when he was with her that he could tell her everything, even things that he didn't manage to tell his own mother...besides he always felt this pain in his chest whenever he thought of the dangers she could get on...and this was one of them, if the hunters caught her or the wolves God knows what could happen! But that wouldn't happen, ever, he was determinate to protect her...

Besides...the Alpha Male still didn't trust him fully, in every visit he had paid to Nymph during the whole summer and autumn, always, but always, he noticed how tense the leader of the creatures got whenever he approached the blonde haired girl...if he helped them, he would prove that he is and had always been on their side, that he didn't want to hurt his "daughter".

As if he could feel the nervousness of his owner, Basilisk started running faster without him having ordered to do so. The two galloped in between the trees covered by the white snow, the long legs of the creature also were covered by the white blanket that had token over the forest and the city, the cold air coming from their breathes formed itself into small clouds and then disappeared in the middle of nothing. When he less excepted, Sulfus was already capable the entrance of the cavern, which only made him pray harder that Nymph and the wolves were in there and not walking around the forest, unaware of the danger that soon would get to them.

This time he didn't even take Basilisk with him to inside the cavern; he just got off of the animal and run as fast as he could inside the cavern. As soon as he arrived to the other side, he looked at every spot trying to see if Nymph or any of the wolves were there but nothing...there was no sign of them...he yelled the girl's name, sound that echoed through the air but nothing, he whistled just like the other times...and still nothing...this scared him...there was one last spot he had to check, behind the waterfall, yes behind the waterfall, Nymph had showed him during one of his visits that it was there where she and the wolves slept at night, the big waterfall had behind itself an entrance towards a smaller cavern, there fit perfectly well all the wolves and the girl, who slept peacefully in between the fur of her wolves.

So he did it, carefully so he wouldn't fall in the water, something that surprised him because since it was winter, it should be frozen, but now it wasn't the time to think about it, he went through the branch, carefully as possible, which would allow him to reach the entrance of the waterfall and he peeked in...again...nothing...this only meant what he most feared

They were in the forest

He returned to his horse and climbed on it, galloping then fast as possible in between the trees and the white snow. He had to find them...

Before it was too late...

What he most wished didn't take too long to happen...but also what he less wished had happened...the view he was seeing, as soon as Basilisk stopped galloping and stopped not too far away from the group he was searching for, it was horrible...

Nymph was there together with some of the grey wolves, he remembered well that the whole pack was composed by six wolves, without counting with the cubs that should be more or less five...however adults were only four and cubs he only could see three...what he was seeing was horrible, Nymph was trying to free two wolves from the traps, they had been caught by the legs and were extremely hurt.

Without hesitating another second, Sulfus approached them and kneeled down, the blonde haired girl looked at him with fear, scared as if asking him what was going on and the boy seemed to have understand the question "I'm sorry I arrived too late...I heard two men talking about a hunt to the wolves and I came here as soon as I could...but don't worry, I'm not letting them hurt anyone else" he put his hand over the girl's, looking into her eyes determinate "...we'll save them" then he pushed away the girls' hands from the object that held the paws of the two animals and with all his strength he tried to open it. It took a while but he managed to do it, carefully he took the paws of the wounded animals and caressed their fur...

"The wounds are deep, you've got to take them back to the cavern and use the water...I'm going to search for the others" he was ready to climb on the horse when Nymph grabbed his arm, stopping him "I'll be fine, don't worry about me" he assured her as soon as he understood the fear the girl was feeling "Here, take this" he gave her the jacket and helped her dressed it, then pulled the hood and put it on her head "Don't let anyone see you, okay? And go as fast as you can, whatever you do, don't leave the cavern, I promise I'll come back with the other wolves"

He climbed on Basilisk and galloped away from the girl, who kept staring at him until she couldn't see him anymore, but the worried look remained on her eyes...however one of the wolves pulled on her dress to get her attention, she looked down and the wolf signed her to return to the hideout. The girl hesitated for a few moments but then gave in...

Meanwhile Sulfus kept traveling around the forest trail, on his way he had already destroyed more traps, now he also had put on the hood of his jacket over his head, if by any chance he came face to face with one of the hunters he didn't want him to see his face because if that happened...he would be in trouble...he would see once again the name of his family on newspapers and magazines, rumors flying around the city about things really bad and he didn't want that at all...

Then he heard it...a whimper, it wasn't from a person but from an animal, hoping to be the ones he was looking for the boy galloped faster until he arrived to the zone where the sound was coming from...and there it was...to his surprise but also horror, the small group of wolves that were there was nobody else than the Alpha and his family, his partner was the one who was arrested on the trap while two cubs, probably theirs, surrounded her and made small whimpers of worry. The Alpha rose up his head and his fur rose up when he felt a presence approaching him and his family and immediately turned up to Sulfus.

"Easy, easy, I'm not going to hurt you, I only want to help her out of the trap" said the boy when he saw the pointy fangs of the animal showing...this time he didn't have Nymph with him to protect him from the leader of the pack, but he didn't need her protection...if he had managed to have the trust of all the wolves, then he would manage to have the trust of the chief...he heard the female moaning something which made the Alpha turn back to her...then his fur returned back to the normal and he calmed down...Sulfus took this a sign to advance to help.

Carefully, the boy approached the creatures, the cubs moved away and hide behind their father as soon as he kneeled down to analyze the female's wound. First he caressed her fur to calm her down which seemed to work "Easy...everything will be fine, I'll help you..." the female seemed to have calmed down, Sulfus then put his hands upon the trap and started opened it just like he had done with the others, the wolf whimpered in pain which caused the boy to bite his lower lip afraid he was hurting her more...but in a few minutes he managed to open the damned trap, the Alpha approached his partner and the two snuggled in each other.

Happy that he had managed to save the wolves before the hunters arrived, Sulfus smiled before the sweet scene between the two wolves that he was witnessing...but the happiness soon ended when Basilisk started becoming agitated, making sounds and raising his legs in the air. His owner immediately approached him and grabbed its reins, caressed his mane to calm him down "Easy boy, easy...what's wrong?" Basilisk moved his head towards the top of the hill and Sulfus looked there, he didn't see anything however he heard something...steps...fast steps...it could only be the hunters...

As fast as he could Sulfus approached the wolves "You've got to go now" he picked up the best he could the female and put her on the back of the Alpha, he pushed the two cubs slightly towards their parents "Nymph is already on the cavern, go, I'll try to distract him the most I can" seeming to have understood the message of the human boy, the Alpha run towards the direction of the cavern. Sulfus had grabbed a branch with some leaves that was around there and started cleaning up the prints either from him or the wolves to avoid the hunters from finding clues of them.

However he was interrupted...he heard a small whimper...he looked around and that's when he saw it...another cub from the grey wolves, scared, cold, and trembling from fear, peeking out of a tree, looking at him as if asking for help. Without hesitating, Sulfus run to the cub "Oh god, come here little one, come" he reached out his hand and the cub smelled it before walking to him. The boy quickly took the small cub in his arms and held her close to him "Don't worry little one, I'll take you to your mommy" he hide the cub between his jacket to keep it warm...then Basilisk agitated again, Sulfus turned and found himself face to face with what he less wanted...

A hunter...

He was pointing him a shotgun, however thanks to the hood he wasn't capable of recognizing the face of the eldest child of the Zolfanello family, this last one was scared...not because he could be recognized but because of the small creature he was hiding between his arms...

"So it's you, who has been destroying all the traps" said the hunter, without thinking about lowering the dangerous weapon he had in his hands...

Sulfus didn't hesitate in answering "And what if it was...? What you're doing to these creatures it's cruel and wrong, but also illegal!"

The hunter laughed "You've got lots of courage and a big mouth boy, but your courage won't serve you much once I get a bullet in the middle of your eyes! Now hand over the cub before I decide to do it by force!" he ordered, Sulfus however smirked

"Just try it..."

"You asked for it..." but the man didn't have time to press the trigger and shoot the boy with the bullet because he was thrown to the floor by one of the wolves, wolf that Sulfus had already seen before that's why he provoked the hunter so much...without hesitating a second more, the young teenager climbed on the horse with the cub in his arms and galloped towards the cavern, leaving the wolf taking care of what he had begun, something he knew it wouldn't take too long and soon he would follow him.

He arrived at the cavern and entered with the horse and the cub. As soon as he approached the trees, he was thrown down to the floor by Nymph who hugged him very tightly, she had been extremely worried about him and had feared that something could have happened to him but after all he was here, safe and sound and just as he had promised, he had saved all of her dear wolves. Sulfus smiled and stood up once the girl let him go, he put the cub down who immediately run towards his mother.

That's when the Alpha approached him; both stared at each other very serious until...the Alpha lowered down his head in sign of respect, the teenager at the beginning didn't understand that but when he looked at Nymph and saw her smiling he understood he finally had the trust of the Alpha. He couldn't help but smile. Then he remembered his mother's suggestion...he looked at everyone and sighed...approached a bit from the girl and the Alpha.

"I know you can't understand me very well but...I would like to ask you permission for something..." seeming to have understood the boy, the Alpha waited for him to keep talking "I...would like to take Nymph with me, during this winter, so she can learn and see better how things work in "my world"..." he looked at both of them, the blue eyes of the girl seemed to have lighten up once she heard such a suggestion and looked immediately to the Alpha as if asking him permission to go, however he seemed a bit hesitant about the subject...but seeing the happiness shining in his "daughter's" eyes, he couldn't say no and so...he nodded.

Nymph hugged his head and caressed his fur in sign of thank, Sulfus stood up from the grass "I promise I'll take care of her" he took Nymph's hand in his and helped her standing up. Both walked up towards the horse which the boy climbed on first, then reached out his hand to the girl who took it and he helped her climbing on and sitting on the saddle, right behind himself "Hold on my waist" he said, she nodded and surrounded his waist with her hands, holding tightly. The girl waved in sign of goodbye to her wolves before the horse left the cavern.

The two galloped through the white forest for a good pair of minutes, Nymph looked around her amazed, she had never been too far from the forest, she had never been on that zone. Needless to be said that she was even more amazed when they entered the city zone, not that they had gone through this one but from the hill where Sulfus' house stood, both of them could see it. He smiled when he saw the happiness in her eyes. They entered the stables where the teen put the horse back into his own stall. He held the girl's hand and took her to the back door.

"I'm going to introduce you my parents and little sister" said the boy as he opened the door and both walked in, Nymph looked around amazed at the huge size of the house...that's when she saw a woman very similar to her friend only she had orange eyes instead of amber approaching them, she hide behind Sulfus scared, he laughed "Come on, don't worry, it's just my mother" the girl peeked just a little by the boy's shoulder, Seraph smiled at both of them but as soon as the girl stepped out behind her son's back, she was shocked..

"B-But you are..."

TBC...


	6. The melody of memory

**The Waterfall's Nymph**

**Chapter 6 – The melody of memory**

"B-But you are…" murmured Seraph when she saw the girl...that little or nothing had yet come out from behind her son's back, he instead looked confused towards his mother before looking back at Nymph and then again to her.

"Is there something wrong?" asked the boy, the mother left her trance and looked at him

"N-No...it's j-just that she looks so much like-"

Sulfus quickly stopped his mother from continuing, his eyes suddenly became cold and hard as well as his voice "But she is not, mom, she is not and she _can't_ be...so just drop it"

Caught by surprise by this aggressive reaction of her son, Seraph jumped a little startled but quickly remembered how much it hurt her son remembering that subject "I'm sorry" it was all she could say. The boy was about to grab Nymph's hand and go upstairs when suddenly Edan, Sulfus ' father, entered in the hall together with Elisabeth.

He was surprised to see the strange blonde haired girl standing next to his son "Sulfus...have you brought a friend?" he asked, somehow confused when he saw her dress...well...it was a bit old? It reminds him of the castaways' clothes. Sulfus froze, literally, when he remembered that never, and it's really never, had he spoken about Nymph to his father...

He sighed and turned to him "Well..."...this was going to be a veeeeeeeery long conversation...

~*.*~*.*~

After some effort, Sulfus managed to tell the whole story about Nymph to his father. At the moment the whole family was reunited at the living room, they had managed to convince Nymph that the sofa wasn't some kind of monster that would swallow her in.

Edan sighed after that conversation "So let me see if I understood everything...she saved you on the day you fell on the river...you went to look for her even though you thought she was just a mirage and as the past months went on, this is for about nearly two seasons and half, you have been going to her to help her understand more of this world...?"

"Yes, yes and yes..." answered the boy

The father crossed his arms "Well...I suppose that letting her stay here by the winter isn't a bad idea...but you do know that you will have lots of work ahead of you, don't you?"

Sulfus scratched the back of his head "I'm very aware of that, moreover I haven't had any other thing but hard work with her...it's just going to be another phase, I suppose"

"Well...as long as it won' disrupt your studies..."

"It won't"

"And by the way...when are you thinking about telling Kabale? Knowing her, she will get very jealous when she sees her here..." warned somehow Edan, Sulfus couldn't hold back a sigh...he couldn't handle much more this fake relationship he had with Kabale and just the idea of the marriage gave him nauseas, he didn't hate the girl but simply didn't want her as his wife...only his father wasn't aware that this marriage thing was all fake, all of this to keep the name of his family, his father was really proud of him and he didn't want to take all that pride away...

"I...will find a way..." murmured the boy, he took Nymph's hand "Come, I'll show you around the house"

"I'm going to ask Bianca to prepare the room for her" said Seraph standing up as well from the sofa and walking to the place where the maid was. Sulfus and Nymph went upstairs and walked through the halls. He opened the first door.

"This is my bedroom" he said, then pointed to the door that stood in front of his own "That is going to be yours, so don't worry, if you need me you just have to take 5 little steps and you're here." She smiled which he returned, the guide through the house keep going until both of them were again downstairs. They entered again on the living room "This is the living room, it's where we have been first" he explained but that was when Nymph noticed something that wasn't there before...a bonfire...the blue eyes of the girl widened and as fast as she could she hide behind Sulfus, he was caught by surprise and was confused as well by the reason that made her do that, he turned around.

"H-Hey but what's wrong with you?" but the girl just keep holding his shirt tightly, that's when he understood that she was trembling, just like someone would when it was about to cry, he put his hands upon her shoulders and forced her to back away just a little from him "What's wrong...?" he asked, Nymph, already with small tears on her eyes and with her hand trembling, pointed slowly towards the bonfire, he followed her forefinger..."The bonfire? Oh...are you afraid of the fire?" she quickly nodded and that's when a small flash lit up on the boy's head, he finally seemed to have the answer to the question he had kept with himself ever since he met her...he remembered that she had pointed towards his eyes when he had asked her why she had run away from him...and now he understood why...his amber colored eyes probably remembered her of the fire, something that she feared...

"So that's why you were afraid of my eyes? Because they remembered you of the fire?" slowly Nymph nodded, Sulfus sighed and took her out of the living room, so she wouldn't see again the bonfire...he managed to distract her by showing her more rooms of the house, until they walked by a door that stood right under the stairs. Catching her attention that closed door, Nymph pulled a little on the sleeve of his shirt, he turned to her and saw to where she was constantly pointing at.

"Oh there? It's nothing special, it's just the cave-wait where are you going!" he exclaimed when he saw the girl getting away from him and going towards the door, she opened it and peeked in. It was dark but Sulfus once he got there turned on the small light, just as he had said it was a cave, filled with old things like toys and furnishings "There isn't anything special in here...unless you like dust..." he murmured

Nymph continued watching the inside of the cave, peeked under the sheets that covered the furnishings that were in there. That was when in one of these peek-ins that something caught her attention, an object not too big, golden colored but with spirals effects of a celestial blue color, heart shaped and with a red star in the middle. Curious, the girl picked up the object and turned to Sulfus who was looking at her.

However the boy seemed to have remained breathless when he saw what she was holding on her hand, he couldn't say anything, not even a single word, let alone a move, he just could stay there and look at the object...

Seeing that he wasn't reacting, she got a bit worried, she turned her attention back at the object she had on her hand and as if she knew what it was, she opened it slowly. From there it started sounding a melody, a beautiful and sweet melody; it was so calm and sent such a sensation of tranquility. Even though there was lots of dust covering the object and how old it seemed to be, it worked perfectly well, not even a single musical note seemed to fail.

Suddenly Sulfus' hand touched Nymph's hand and forced her to close the object, cutting the melody on the middle of it. The blonde haired girl looked up at him as soon as this happened, confused, why had he done that? But seeing the pain on the boy's amber eyes...somehow that affected her too...

Without saying a single word Sulfus turned his back on her and left the cave, it didn't take too long for her to follow him but not before wondering if she should bring with herself that object...one side of her was telling her to leave it at the place she had found it and forget that she had ever found it...but another side of her was telling her that the object would still be important...her stubbornness gave in and she run out of the cave with the object hidden on her palm. She still was able to see Sulfus on the stairs, walking up, so she followed him, although sometimes she would stumble on her own feet due to not being used to the stairs just yet.

And because of that she wasn't able to see him at the hall but quickly deduced that he should be at his bedroom, even knowing that he was feeling bad, or at last that was what it seemed to her when she saw that sad and painful look in his eyes, she walked to the door and opened it just a little bit, peeking in...

And actually there he was, sitting on the rail of his window looking outside to the sunset that shone upon him, giving him a even more beauty than he already had. Trying to not disturb him much, Nymph walked inside the room on tiptoes, being the most silently as possible, however it didn't take too long for Sulfus to notice her presence in the room and turned to her. That look was still there and not even the smile that she was so used to see on him was there...only pain...he seemed to carry a huge agony inside him that he hide very well every single day, making it seem that everything was just fine.

The girl immediately hide the object behind her back when she noticed that he had already seen it, she looked down as if saying that she regretted, both from having entered inside the cave and having brought the object with her...Sulfus sighed, stood up from the rail and sat down on his bed...hesitating for a few moments, Nymph ended up sitting down next to him, looking at him, as if waiting for him to speak up...again the amber eyes of the boy settled down on the object she had on her hand...the small music box...

"It belonged to her..." he spoke up finally...his voice was barely heard but since she was really close to him, she was able to hear him "To my best friend..." he closed his hands into fists but then she placed hers upon his, in sign to calm down, he looked at her and saw the smile she had on her lips...

He sighed and continued "But she is dead..." he closed his eyes when the images of that day came back to his memory "It happened 10 years ago, almost 11...in a few weeks it happens the 11th anniversary of the incident that killed her...her and her family..."  
>He looked at her "You know...just like you...for a few years I feared the fire as well" she seemed surprised to hear this "Because...I was there...on that day...I saw everything that happened...and it's something that I will never be able to forget...we were both just 6 years old..." he took the music box from Nymph's hands and opened it, letting the melody being released on where it had been stopped.<p>

"The two of us were really close, and sometimes we would sleep on each other's houses, you see over here?" he pointed to a hill well visible from his window, there were nothing more than trees covered by snow "Now there were born trees but years ago there stood her house, we lived really close to each other...anyway, on that day it was my turn to sleep on her home, I usually slept on a mattress close to her bed. It would have been just another night...if that fire hadn't started...

_Little Sulfus woke up with the smell of something burned, and this blocked his breathe, he started coughing and sat up and opened his amber eyes, his vision was blurred due to the sleep he still had so he was forced to rub them with his small hands. That's when he saw it...smoke coming from under the door._

_As fast as he could, he jumped from the mattress where he was laying down to the bed of his friend that was still sleeping, he shook her a few times "Raf, Raf! Wake up!" moaning on her sleep, the girl opened her blue eyes, yawned and then coughed_

_"What is it Sulfus...? It's late..."_

_"I think there is a fire!" said the boy, the girl looked at him as if he was crazy_

_"Stop talking nonsense!"_

_"It's not nonsense, look at the smoke coming from under the door!" he exclaimed pointing to the referred place, Raf followed his forefinger and saw that her friend was right, there was actually smoke and a light between the yellow and the orange shone on the corners of the door. The smoke that was starting to accumulate inside the bedroom only made the two children cough more._

_They stood up from the bed and run towards the door, they opened it and looked horrified at the fire that covered already half of the house "How are we going to escape from here...?" asked the young Raf, holding on to her friend's hand who held it back tightly._

_"There must be a place that it's not covered by the fire...over there!" he pointed towards a window, he started running in that direction but his friend grabbed him by the pajama's sleeve, stopping him_

_"Wait! My mommy and my daddy, I have to help them!" exclaimed the girl, running then in the direction of her parents' bedroom, the door then opened revealing the two adults that also had been woken up by the smoke, seeing her mother, Raf hugged immediately her legs, scared, Sulfus was right behind her._

_"Mommy, I'm scared!" said the girl, the mother lowered down and took her daughter in her arms as her husband held the boy's hand._

_"Calm down we'll take you out of here" said the mother, returning inside the bedroom together with her husband and Sulfus, the woman lowered down and opened a small door that was hidden behind the wardrobe "You two go in there, this door will take you outside" said the mother pointing to the entrance_

_"B-But what about you and daddy...?" said the girl with a trembling voice_

_"Don't worry, me and mommy will also find a way out, but now you two must go in there" ensured her the father, the mother went to her bed-side table, opened the drawer and took something from inside there, giving then to her daughter._

_"It's your music box..." said Raf looking at the object, the mother smiled at her and kissed her face_

_"And now it's yours. Now go." She pushed the two children inside the entrance, they lowered down and started walking down the hall...quickly they reached the outside and started running the fast they could away from the house..._

I was totally sure that she was right behind me...but when I arrived on a safer zone, I looked behind myself and saw that she wasn't there...I tried to go back and find her but right on that moment it happened an explosion that finished with her house completely...I tried to go there but the people that had seen the fire and had called the firemen, had arrived to the place and held me back...they told me that there was nothing I could do...and I refused to believe in that..."

_"No, NO! I've got to go get her!" screamed Sulfus, fighting to get rid of the arms of a woman that held him in her arms to avoid him to commit craziness and entered inside the fire_

_"There is nothing you can do to save them!"_

_"NO, NO! RAAAAAAAFFFFF!"_

Sulfus closed his eyes painfully and closed his hand that held the music box, closing it and cancelling the melody that was playing "They never found her body...all they found was this..." he said indicating the object he had on his hand "I couldn't save her nor could I say goodbye to her..." Ninfa tightened the grip she had on his hand

"For years I feared the fire...I couldn't be near it without reminding myself of that fatidic day and for days after that night I cried...but then I promised myself that no more I would shed a single tear...and since then that I don't cry...not even when I remember that day..."

Suddenly Nymph hugged him, catching him by surprise, he wasn't waiting at all that she did this...even though she always did it when she saw he was sad, it's something that he got used to but he wasn't waiting for it right now. But then he relaxed and circled his arms around her waist, closing his eyes and smiling...

Then the girl let go of the hug and put both her forefingers on the corners of his mouth, forcing them up, trying to create the best she could a smile. Sulfus blinked trying to understand what the girl was trying to do...then he stated laughing.

"You're just unreal!" he laughed, however she smiled, happy by seeing him smile again "However...thank you...you can always manage to make me smile. Also...you remind me of Raf so much...I don't know why but when I'm with you...I feel like she is here too..."

Two hours or less later, the two of them were called for dinner...well...you could say it was totally humorous because before they were able to make Nymph hold correctly the cutlery...it was a really hard job but also very funny, something that this family hasn't done for a very long time, together. After the meal, the family went to the living room where some read, others played, and others watched TV...well, many things.

When the clock hit the 11 PM, Sulfus was about to go to his room when he noticed that Nymph had fallen asleep curled on the sofa, next to him. He couldn't hold back a smile when he saw that scene...well...adorable? He picked her up in his arms and without much effort; he took her to the up floor, going to what now was her bedroom. He laid her down on the bed that now had cleaned sheets and covered her, tucking her in the blankets to keep her warm in that cold winter night.

Before he left the room, he kissed her face and smiled...whispering a few last words...

"Thank you"

TBC...

**Please leave a review telling what you think about this chapter, it's really appreciated! Also, the music chosen to play as the music box in this chapter, is this music /watch?v=iZeomtLGCbc**


	7. Hard Truth

**The Waterfall's Nymph**

**Chapter 7 – Hard Truth**

Sulfus woke up in the next morning, he was totally curled around the blankets and sheets of his bed, it was so cold outside that he didn't even want to get out of there. But apart from the cold, the sun went through the small holes of the shutter from his window, filling the room with the morning's light, causing as well the awakening of the boy. He looked at his cell phone, with a very sleepy face, to check out what time was it: 10h30.

He placed the object again on his bedside table and allowed himself to cuddle a bit more, it was Saturday after all, he just wanted to stay curled in his bed, he was too tired. He was about to fall asleep again when he started hearing laughs from the outside, coming from the garden.

Taken by the curiosity, he stood up from the bed and dragged himself to the window, he opened the curtains and the shutter of his window, he peeked outside and saw Elisabeth trying to teach Nymph how to make snow balls and throwing them against a tree, his little sisters laughed at the fact that the blonde haired girl was a bit clumsy in doing that. Something that caught the young teenager's attention was that he had noticed Nymph wasn't wearing anymore the white dress that he always had seen her dressed, she now wore a pair of tight jeans, brown snow boots and a warm purple jacket, he couldn't see her shirt because of the jacket. But he also noticed that the girl wasn't used to that type of clothes, she had a hard time moving in them but Elisabeth always helped her up whenever she lost her balance and fell, making a huge hole in the snow, one more reason for the child to laugh so much.

Deciding that he too wanted to join the game of these two, Sulfus smiled and went back inside his bedroom. He changed his clothes and walked out the room, going downstairs where his parents were at the living room, sitting on the sofa, Edan read his newspaper as usual while Seraph read one of her romance books that she loved so much.

"Good morning" said the boy, his parents' attention was turned immediately to him, his mother smiled

"Finally awake" she said, joking because she knew perfectly that her son loved to sleep till late, he understood her joking tone and only rolled his eyes before going to the kitchen and ask Bianca to make him something fast since he wasn't very hungry. After having breakfast, he decided then to go to the garden of his house that now was filled up with snow, where the two girls were playing...or they had been playing because when he got there he couldn't see them. He found it weird...he hadn't seen them go inside the house, where were they?

All he felt next was something hitting on the back of his head, filling up his rebel blue hair with snow, he turned around but barely had time to react because not one but three snow balls hit him right on his face. He shook the snow off his face and looked at where they had come from, but nobody was there, however he could hear a very low giggle of his sister.

"Very funny, you two" he said while he tried to understand where they were hidden, he walked silently on the snow, trying not to make too much noise. That's when he noticed a bit of Nymph's blonde hair hidden behind a bush, he rolled his eyes but smiled "Oh where could they be?" he crouched down and filled up his arms with snow and walked to where they were hidden, he found them both laughing at what they had done to him, however they didn't notice the "danger" that was right above their heads, they only noticed it too late when Sulfus let the snow in his arms fall upon their heads, he laughed.

"Take that!" he said between laughs while the two girls got out of under the snow, shaking it out of them, Elisabeth pouted as she stood up and crossed her arms, Sulfus keep laughing and flicked her nose slightly in playful way, she started giggling too. The boy then helped Nymph up "Lizzie, what do you think of showing Nymph the city?" he asked then to his little sister

"Yes, yes!" she answered very happy

"Go warn mom and dad, we'll be waiting for you at the gate" the girl nodded and run happily back inside the house, Sulfus turned his attention back to the blonde girl standing in front of him, he smiled at her "Did you sleep well?" he asked, the girl nodded and also smiled at him. She followed him when he started walking towards the gate.

"You know, there is something that I want to ask you, about the place where you live with the wolves" said the boy, catching the girl's attention who looked at him with a look as if saying for him to go on "Yesterday when I went there looking for you...I noticed something...the lake wasn't frozen, moreover nothing in there was filling with snow, how is that possible? We are in Winter..."

The girl wanted to explain him but the fact she didn't have a voice didn't allow her to do so...how could she explain it to him? It was a bit hard doing it with gestures...seeing the hard time the girl was having in trying to explain him, the boy tried to help her by guessing

"Is it because of the water? The magic?" he tried and received a nod as a response, meaning that he was right "You mean that the magic in the water besides healing wounds, is also able to keep that place safe no matter the weather changing?" again the girl nodded, he was amazed, he never though magic really existed, let alone that it had so much power...however another question went through his mind "But...tell me, what can happen if that magic disappears? The place won't be protected any longer and can...die?" the girl put a sad look and slowly nodded again, looking down...

Sulfus now understood the reason she had asked him to not tell anyone about that place...there were too many cruel and selfish people in the world, if they found out such richness and power they would end up destroying that place and would use the magic for evil purposes "Well, don't worry, from my mouth nobody will find out about that place" she smiled at him in a thanking sign. It didn't take too long until Elisabeth reached them. As much as he loved his sister, there was another reason of why Sulfus had decided to take her with him and Nymph, he knew if he walked by himself around the city with a girl that he rumors and bad talking about his family would come back, saying that he was flirting with another when he was about to get married with the only daughter of the Rosso family, etc...

"Well, let's see...where I can start...oh, you see that place over there?" said Sulfus, indicating the huge building, painting with many colors that looked more like a palace "That's my school" Nymph tilted her head in sign of confusion "Uh well...what can I say...school is a place where basically you learn many things, writing, reading, counting...and there are many years, you can consider them as levels, you can say that the more you learn, the higher the level you are is, you understand? I for example, I'm at the last level, when I finish this I will have to choose something that I want to do in the future, to be able to enter in a more advanced school. Elisabeth is only on her second year, though." The girl nodded, seeming to have understood the boy's explanation.

The guide through the city continued, obviously and just like excepted, the people would whisper between each other things about who was that girl, why was she with Sulfus, was she some cousin that was going to stay for a while, and many other things...Sulfus just hoped that none of these things became a new rumor that would end up in the first page of the newspapers and magazines, it would be another headache his family would have to handle. They showed to Nymph clothing stores, restaurants, the many types of houses, lots of things, the girl seemed fascinated with all of that, she had never seen such things!

But that's when...

"Sulfus?" said suddenly a voice, the boy turned around and was surprised when he saw who it was...you guessed right, it was none other than Kabale herself! She was staring at her boyfriend, his sister and the blonde haired girl that she didn't know who was...

"K-Kabale..." murmured the dark haired boy, he noticed that she was staring right at Nymph...he looked at this last one and then back to girl in front of him...he sighed...he knew this moment sooner or later would arrive...but he had to try to control the things...

"Who is she?" she said directly, the purple haired girl glared at Nymph with her amber eyes...who was she and why was she so close to HER boyfriend, to HER fiancée...? She didn't like this, not a single bit of it...

"Lizzie, can you go back home with Nymph, by yourself?" said the boy, turning to his sister who, even though she was just 7, had understood immediately the situation and taking Nymph's hand in hers, she told the girl to go back home and that Sulfus would reach them later, Nymph was worried but obeyed and returned back to the Zolfanello house with Elisabeth.

"House? She lives with you? Who is she Sulfus? Are you betraying me?" yelled the girl, seeing that the attentions were gathering around on them, Sulfus acted quickly, he grabbed the girl's hand and guided her to a more isolated zone, as far as possible from the public places where someone could hear their conversation.

"Listen to me, Kabale, this is not what you are thinking!" he exclaimed

"It's not? Then tell me what it is! That little girl lives with YOU and you want me to think exactly what?" continued the exalted girl "I knew you were hiding something from me and now that I saw it by myself, proves me that I was right the whole time! You're just a womanizer and traitor!"

"And what exactly did you see, Kabale? Tell me! What you saw was me, my sister taking a walk with a girl around the city! That's all! Did you see me kissing her? No! No because I didn't do any of that! And since you want to know so badly who she is, I will tell you! She is the girl who I own my life! If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be here anymore! On the day I fell on the river, SHE was the one who saved me, if it wasn't for her, I would be dead by now, deep in the river!"

"And is it necessary for her to live with you?"

"Don't talk about what you don't know! She is living with me because I decided to help her, I'll let you know that she has no family, she has always lived in the forest, she doesn't know anything about our style of life, I decided to help her know better all of this as a favor for her having saved my life!"

"So you got a savage in your house?"

"ENOUGH! That's enough Kabale, I'm tired! I'm tired of all of this! I'm tired of your jealousy scenes, I'm tired of you wanting to control my life, with who I can talk or not, you don't have any kind of right over me! I'm tired of this lie, I'm tired of pretending that I still love you, when that's not true, I'm tired of smiling when I have no reasons to do so, I'm tired of admitting that I want to marry you when that's not true!"

He realized too late that he had talked too much...he shouldn't have said that...at least the part that he didn't lover her any longer, it wasn't a lie though what he had said but she shouldn't know it...oh well...no use crying over spilled milk, now he had to face the consequences...but it didn't matter anymore, he was tired of all of that...

"W-Wh-What...?" mumbled the young girl; shocked with all she had just heard...he didn't love her anymore? The wedding was all a lie? It wasn't true? It wasn't what he wanted? He didn't want to have a future by her side?

"I'm sorry but that's the truth...and please don't blame Nymph for this, because it's not her fault...long time before I met her my feelings for you had already died, I don't feel love anymore for you, just friendship, that's all...I'm sorry you found out this way...and before you ask why I kept this whole lie...it was for the sake of my family's name" and with these hard but true words said, the boy turned his back to his...well...ex-fiancée, you could call it that way and started walking away from her.

But he still heard "You'll pay for this Sulfus Zolfanello!"

However he decided to not take these words serious

~*.*~*.*~

Sulfus entered in his house, sighed and massaged his temples...nice way to finish the morning...nothing better than throwing at your fiancée's face that you don't love her anymore and the whole marriage story is fake! And now he was certainly sure that the Rosso would publish that story in the newspapers...great...just great...but now there was nothing he could do...what was done, was done...

He walked towards the stairs but ended up crossing paths with his father in the hall..."Sulfus, what happened? Why has Elisabeth returned by herself?"

"Not now, dad..." murmured the young boy, he didn't want to tell him what happened right now...he would just disappoint him...

"Oh no, young man, now yes. Tell me what happened" demanded Edan

"I broke up with Kabale, okay?" he said raising his tone a little bit

"What? Why did you do something like that? You were going to get married!" exclaimed the father

"We won't any longer..."

"Is it because of that girl? Sulfus you-"

"For God's sake! You're the second person that thing it's Nymph's fault! Damn it, leave her at peace! It's not her fault! I don't love Kabale anymore and it's not because of Nymph, I didn't love her long before I met Nymph! So stop blaming her!" and with that said, the boy run upstairs, ignoring his father's calls

He was about to enter in his room when he stopped himself from doing so...he turned to Nymph's bedroom...she probably was there. He turned his back to his bedroom's door and walked to the one in front of him, he knocked twice before opening it slightly, Nymph was there and raised her head when she heard the two knocks, she smiled and stood up from the floor, walking up to him. He entered in the room and closed the door behind him.

"I'm sorry for what happened back there...it's something very complicated" said the boy, the girl smiled at him and took both his hands in hers pulling back to the place she was sitting before he had entered. Both sit down again on the bedroom's carpet and Sulfus noticed that on it was a note block with something done in there, next to it was a pencil and a book. He picked up the block and the book...his eyes widened slightly and turned to Nymph.

"You were trying to write?" Nymph curled a bit of her hair on her finger in sign of nervousness before nodding, she wanted to communicate with him beyond the gestures, there were things that gestures couldn't say, there were things that she wanted to tell him but she couldn't because she was mute! So she decided that she wanted to learn how to write, learn a new way of communicating with him. Just like he had made an effort to understand her gestures, she too would make an effort to be able to write.

Sulfus smiled at her "Well, I'll help you but let's start with something simpler, okay? Try to copy too long words from a book is still too complicated for you, so let's start with something simpler" she nodded. Sulfus and Nymph spent the rest of the day dedicating to the young girl's write learning, for a beginning it wasn't bad, Sulfus had helped the young girl write the abecedary lots of times until it had a more correct format, it wasn't easy but slowly, and thanks to both teens' determination, Nymph was able to start writing her first words. The next days would be dedicated to the hardest part.

~*.*~*.*~

_Hours before..._

Kabale entered fast in her house, in tears, mad, she felt anger, she felt anger towards everything, anger towards Sulfus, anger towards her feelings for him! How had he dared to do something like this to her? How had he dared to use her to keep his family's name? How had he dared to play, use like that her feelings for him? She hated him with all her might right now!

"I hate, I hate him, I hate him!" she yelled

"Kabale?" said a voice, coming from behind the girl, she turned around to the person, it was none other than her father, Edwin Rosso. The only member of her family that was left of her, her mother had died years ago when she was still very young "What's wrong, my sweetie?"

Without even thinking twice about it, Kabale told everything that had happened, without hiding any kind of detail...

TBC...

**I hope you've liked it! Please don't forget to leave reviews! Also if you're curious check out my other recent Angel's Friends stories: "Father's Day Gift", I've sent this one in March and only got one review but I would like to get more, to see what you thought! And I've also posted the small prologue of the story I'll write once I finish The Waterfall's Nymph, this story is called "I'll Find You" so far I haven't got any reviews of this one.**


	8. Like in a fairytale

**The Waterfall's Nymph**

**Chapter 8 – Like in a fairytale**

A few days passed since Sulfus finally decided to end once and for all his relationship with Kabale...the new had already been spread just like it was excepted to happen but what surprised more was the fact that it hadn't caused so much scandal as they thought it would...however the Zolfanello family had decided to be more alert, they knew it wouldn't end there...there was something else behind it...

At school, Sulfus and Kabale barely looked at each other, let alone speaking, or better say she didn't look or spoke to him. But the boy also didn't have anything else to tell her, he wanted to let the tides to settle down before speaking to her...although he was aware that even if they became just friends their relationship wouldn't be the same after what had happened, he had hurt her a lot just like he also had suffered in silence while keeping a relationship that was already dead a long time ago.

Another problem that had appeared was that Edan for a few days hadn't spoken a single word to his son; he couldn't understand the motives that made the young boy give up so suddenly of a so well planned marriage. This went on until Sulfus couldn't handle it more and...let's say with these words, he "exploded" with his father, and had the support of his mother, the only one who had always know the marriage was fake.

_Silence reined the living room of the Zolfanello family; everyone was in complete silence, although they seemed to be in a peaceful climate, the truth was that tension was the queen of that room. Sulfus took his eyes away from the television, in fact he wasn't even paying too much attention at what was airing in there, and by the corner of his eye he stared at his father...he was tired of that situation, he had already tried to explain to him the motives that made him finish the relationship he had with Kabale but he didn't seem to understand, or if he did then he was making everything in making it seem like he didn't!_

_He closed his hands in fists...and then determinate, turned his face completely in his father's direction..."How long are you going to stay without speaking a word to me?" he didn't answer him but stared at him by the corner of his eye "I'm tired of your silence treatment! Just because of this damn marriage!"_

"_Your actions will lead to our family's name being exposed in the magazines..."_

_Sulfus frowned...Edan was so wrong...he wasn't aware of the sacrifices his son had made to keep the family's name..."That's enough!" this time it wasn't the young boy speaking up but his mother, she stood up from the chair she was sitting on and faced her husband, angry "That's enough Edan! I'm tired of you treating our son this way, you have no idea what he has gone through because of this marriage!"_

"_What are you talking about, Seraph...?"_

"_I'm talking about the sacrifices that he has made for years; do you think he hasn't done anything for the sake of the name of the family? You're wrong! He has done everything for our family, the truth is that Sulfus hasn't loved Kabale for a while but decided to go on with the relationship, with the marriage so the media would leave alone our family. But everything has its limits, I was tired of seeing him suffer in silence, going on with a relationship he didn't want to, I knew everything and yet I keep my mouth shut because he asked me to...but now that's enough, I can't stand seeing your relationship fall apart because of a nonsense!" she said, without taking her eyes off of her husband any single moment "Sulfus became tired of keeping up this lie and told Kabale the truth, he hasn't been selfish like you thought...he did everything he could..."_

_Edan remained without words when he heard that coming from his wife's mouth...then his own amber eyes left Seraph and stared at Sulfus, who now had looked away..._

"_Is this truth, Sulfus...?"_

_All the boy could do was nod with his head, at the moment he couldn't say anything else..._

After that moment his father had apologized to him by his behavior on the past days and though it took a while for him to react, Sulfus ended up accepting his father's apologies.

As for Nymph, although he had gone through that hard period, Sulfus every single day even after he returned from school, went to her to keep helping her developing her writing, something that day after day started becoming better and better, Nymph was already capable of writing words without the help of the boy, which made him happy and somehow proud of her.

However this time he had decided to do something different. At the moment they both were at the stables feeding the horses that belonged to his family.

"It's not a job for us, owners, to do but for the people who work for us to do" said Sulfus as he settled down on the floor a bucket with carrots in there, he turned to the girl and smiled "But it's something that I like to do myself" both approached the first stall where there stood Basilisk "Well you've already met Basilisk but there are more of them for you to meet, I'm sure you'll like one in particular. Now come here in front of me and give me your hand." Nymph did as she was told to, she walked up in front of the boy and he grabbed her left hand, placing one of the carrots there.

"Now, slowly and calmly, stretch your arm until you're near enough from him" explained the boy, her hand started trembling slowly because of her nerves, she had never done something like this before, as soon as he saw this, he put his hand back on hers and helped her approaching Basilisk's mouth, who it opened its mouth and started slowly eating the carrot.

"See? It's not that hard, it's normal to be nervous at the first time but you must control them, because if the animals sense our nervousness, it happens the same to them" he said "Would you like to try again?" the girl nodded with her head and repeated the same action as before, this time she managed to do it all without the boy's help and even caressed the animal's mane. Sulfus grabbed her hand "Come, I'll show you the others now"

They approached another stall, there they found a beautiful white mare, who raised its head when it saw the two of them approaching, not having seen Nymph ever before the mare took a few steps back but calmed down immediately when it was Sulfus caressing its hair. When it calmed down, Sulfus turned around to face Nymph.

"It gets a bit nervous when it sees people it never saw before, but don't worry it's pretty calm, come here" the blonde haired girl approached him, once Nymph stared directly into the mare's dark eyes, both seemed suddenly to have a strong connection, something that didn't happen when the mare saw her for the first time, this time it let Nymph caress her.

"It's named Angel, it belonged to Raf's family. When they died everything that remained from the family was sold since nobody had contact with any of the other family members, my family decided to stay with Angel, at the time it was just a foal just like Basilisk." He explained, then just they had done with Basilisk, they fed Angel and all the other horses, then Sulfus surprised Nymph by telling her both of them were going for a horse ride, only this time each one of them would be riding their own horse. He would ride Basilisk and she would ride Angel. The girl became a little nervous.

"Don't worry, it's not that hard, trust me" he said, helping her getting on Angel's saddle, then he did the same with Basilisk "Do as I do. Grab the reins like this, make sure your feet are well positioned and your back must be straight. Now slightly hit on the belly to start riding" Nymph did as she was told to and jumped a little when Angel started walking slowly, Sulfus did the same and made sure he was always at the same rhythm as hers just in case she would need his help.

However the ride went on amazingly well, both of them had walked slowly through a part of the forest that was completely unknown to Nymph, they rode in the middle of the snow, and had watched a few birds getting back to their nests inside the trees. They returned home about an hour later.

Sulfus climbed down the horse and walked up to Angel and Nymph "Come, let me help you getting down" he stretched out his arms to which she jumped to literally, holding on tightly to his neck "Wow, don't worry, I got you!" he laughed, she smiled at him as she stayed still with her arms wrapped around his neck and he with his arms wrapped around her waist, both of them looked at each other in the eyes, amber and blue, sun and sea, golden and sapphire...

Both their faces were close to each other, only a few centimeters away from each other...however Sulfus realized the situation and stopped himself before something else could happen, he blinked a little to come out of his trance and delicately released the girl who did the same to him, he was a bit embarrassed and to hide it, he tried to entertain himself with getting the horses back into their stalls. Nymph simply stared at him.

The two of them returned home, still thinking about the situation that had happened back at the stables...Sulfus couldn't take out of his mind the face and crystalline eyes of the young girl, he was acting the same way he had when he had seen her for the first time and didn't know who she was...he shook his head a little...

'_Why can't I stop thinking about her...I'm so confused...one side of me tells me that my mother was right, that after all I'm starting to feel something else for Nymph besides the friendship that was created between us...but another side tells me that it's just my head making up stories...I don't know what to do...enough, I must take this out of my head!'_

That was when Elisabeth approached both of them running; she had two big books between her hands "Nymph, Nymph! Come with me, I want to show you these books, come!" said the little girl as she grabbed the young girl's hand, who was literally dragged back inside her bedroom, only having time to take one last look at Sulfus...he sighed before he entered in his bedroom...he needed to be alone for a while...to reflect...

~*.*~*.*~

A few hours later, Sulfus had reflected enough about his relationship with Nymph...but he still was a bit confused...he knew he liked her...only he didn't know if this 'liking' was something else, something that was developing to love or if it was a 'liking' like he loved his sister, his friends, his family...

What could he do...?

He sighed...maybe he shouldn't think so much about this, maybe he should just let things go on normally and later see what it would happen...

He stood up from the bed where he had been sprawled out for the last hours, he walked out of his bedroom and walked to Nymph's own, he knocked twice and just like he always did, he peeked inside the room. He smiled when he saw Nymph laying on her bed, balancing her feet back and forth, she was surrounded by books, he approached her, the young girl turned her face to him and smiled, happy for seeing him.

Sulfus sat down next to her and saw that she was reading or better say watching, she was more interested in the pictures that illustrated the books than more properly the words of the text itself, he laughed a little when he noticed the theme of all the books "You're reading fairytales?" Nymph nodded a couple of times, the smile never left her face.

That was when the raven haired boy noticed the small detail...all the books...Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Cinderella, Little Mermaid, and so on...they were all exactly on the same scene...the kiss between the princes and the princesses...he looked at Nymph, curious...

"You're so interested in the kisses of the fairytales, why?" asked the boy, visibly curious, the girl took her notebook and the pencil in her hands and tried to write the best she could, what she wanted to tell him. Then handed him the notebook so he could read it, after a few minutes of trying to decode the phrase, Sulfus came to the conclusion that what she meant to write was:

_How did they felt when they kissed the ones they loved?_

He widened his eyes when he understood the phrase...he was so surprised that he ended up letting the notebook fall from his hands, it fell on the floor making a very slightly noise. Very slowly he looked at the young girl who was sitting next to him...she was so close to him...as close as she had been this morning at the stables, when they had returned from the ride at the forest...

Both their eyes shone...intensely...both their hearts beat fast on their chests, as if they were ready to jump out of them...their faces were so close...without noticing, Sulfus approached his body to the girl's own body, so much that both ended falling slightly into the many pillows of the bed...

There weren't needed words, words would just maybe ruin the moment that had been created...it was like Sulfus' body no longer obeyed to what his brain that was telling him continuously to stop that, to not go forward with that...craziness...? Craziness or not...the boy turned off completely from his mind and followed what his heart told him in that moment...he titled in more and more and as if both of them knew already what was going to happen from there on, the amber and blue eyes closed...and it happened...

Both their lips united, stuck to each other, Sulfus' hand settled on the girl's cheek and caressed it as well as her golden hair...Nymph didn't move...she did nothing...she simply stayed still, with her eyes closed and the body unmoving...simply asking herself if what she was feeling at the moment, something that she was incapable to describe right now, was in fact what these princesses from the fairytales had felt when they kissed their charming princes...

Slowly Sulfus pulled away from her, in synchrony both their eyes opened and stared into each other deeply...the boy's lips opened to say something...but in the end came another...

"I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that, I don't know what got in me! I'm sorry!" he was so confused that he couldn't handle the pressure that he was feeling at the very moment and he run out of the girl's bedroom. He entered abruptly in his own bedroom, closed the door...laid on it and let himself slid down until he reached the floor...he was panting hard...he was still interiorizing what he had just done...he had kissed her!

It felt so wrong and yet it felt to right!

He didn't know what he should do...this kiss hadn't clarified his feelings for her...it had simply confused him even more...

If only he knew the problems this mix of feelings would bring in the future...

TBC...


	9. Trust

**The Waterfall's Nymph**

**Chapter 9 – Trust…**

Turn to the right...turn to the left...turn to the right...turn to the left...turns up and stares at the white ceiling of his bedroom that had nothing interesting to see...he sighed for the hundredth time in that night...he couldn't sleep...that kiss just didn't leave his mind...Nymph's curious look and her smile when she asked him how did the princesses of the fairytales felt when they kissed their charming princes...

He put an arm over his eyes, trying to block that image, that moment from his mind...why had he done that? Why had he kissed her? What had gone through his mind to do such...craziness...he shouldn't have kissed her...not because he had recently finished a relationship, nothing like that, but because he wasn't sure of his feelings for her! Kissing her hadn't just confused him even more but also probably must have given some hopes to the girl...yes...he had already realized that Nymph was in love with him, through the Summer and Autumn his connection with her had become stronger, she had reached a point where she trusted him blindly...and he didn't want her to trust in him that much...he was afraid...he was afraid of hurting her...especially because as the days, weeks, months they had been together went on, little by little he had realized that Nymph felt something more than friendship for him...only she didn't know how to express it...

He sat up on his bed, removing the sheets and blankets that kept him warm...he put a hand on his head and sighed once more...he couldn't keep going like this...he had to clarify his feelings for her before he hurt her, that was the last thing he wanted to do, hurt her...

He stood up from his bed and walked downstairs to go drink some hot chocolate, it usually helped him when he suffered from insomnia...even though he didn't enter that much in the kitchen since they had a cleaner who did everything, Sulfus knew perfectly where he could find all the things he needed. Once the hot chocolate was ready, he had down on one of the chair from the small table that was in there. He looked at the wall clock...it was already past 1 AM and he still hadn't slept anything...

It wasn't just the fact that he couldn't stop thinking about the kiss he gave to Nymph on that evening that didn't allow him to sleep...but something that he had heard when he was ready to go to sleep...it should be around 11.30 PM when he went through his parents' bedroom, they were getting ready to sleep and had the door half closed, so they didn't even notice their son who was there when those words were said...

_"We need to be more careful with that girl..." he heard his father say_

_"What are you talking about, Edan?"_

_"I'm talking about that girl who Sulfus has brought here..." said Edan "I don't trust her at all..."_

_"Edan please, you said it yourself that it was a good idea for her to stay here, so we could help her"_

_"I know that, but we don't know anything about her Seraph. We don't know who she is, where she came from actually"_

_"She is a girl who probably was abandoned in the forest, who had nobody to help her"_

_"And how can you be so sure about that? How can you know that everything isn't just a trap? She can even be faking that she can't speak! Tell me Seraph how is it possible for a girl to survive on her own at the forest?"_

_"Edan please you're being very unfair! You're judging her for no reason; you don't have any reasons to suspect her! Your son trusts her, he has known her for months, I think by suspecting her you're also suspecting your son...now if you don't mind, I will try to forget that you ever said something like that..." he heard his mother laying down on the bed_

_"That doesn't change my opinion about her..."_

Could his father be right? Nymph was hiding something? Had she always been lying to him? Could it be truth that she wasn't actually mute, that she made up all of that in order to be closer to him, that she had ulterior motives...? He shook his head...no...what was he thinking? He couldn't doubt her like that...he didn't have motives for such a thing...she never had given him motives to do so...

He walked upstairs with the intention of returning to his room but once again he couldn't resist in going to check out how Nymph was, every night he did that...but this time he really had to do it, he was so ashamed of having kissed her that he tried to avoid her as much as he could for the rest of the day...they didn't even cross paths at the dinner, he knew that probably that would hurt her but he didn't felt capable of facing her...

He opened the door of the girl's bedroom slowly, to not make too much noise, it was still dawn after all...he walked in very slowly and as more silently as he could, he walked on tip toes on the young girl's direction who laid on her bed, peacefully. She had her face turned to him, it was serene and calm as she slept peacefully, lost in the dream world...Sulfus squatted down staying in front of her face, he stayed there watching her for a while...he raised his hand and caressed very lightly her cheek...a smile appeared on the girl's lips, as if that simple and small caress had reached the dream world where she was lost...

He sighed and shook his head..."I can't even think of the possibility of you being dangerous...you're too innocent to be such a thing..." he stood up and walked out of the room, going to his own...he didn't take too long before he finally fell asleep...

~*.*~*.*~

A few days went on, Sulfus ended up spending again time with Nymph, he knew he couldn't keep avoiding her...however the girl didn't seem very bothered, she didn't even seem to remember that he had suddenly kissed her and then run out of the room without saying anything else but that he was sorry for what happened. The boy found this very strange, she was always smiling when she was close to him, there were times that she held on to his arm just like the girls of her age did with their boyfriends. And the strangest thing for him was that he himself didn't mind that at all...

Christmas was close; it was already visible people going on their last races against time at the shopping to buy their last gifts, decorations and food. However to Sulfus today was a different day, it was a day a bit painful...yes, that day marked nothing more than the 11th anniversary of the incident that killed the Eryn family...to Sulfus it was like a routine, every year he did the same thing, he went to buy two small bouquets of different flowers and then he would go to the cemetery, to the graves of Raf's parents where he would lay down one of the bouquets. Then he would go to a place that had a special meaning to him.

At the moment he was at the city with Nymph, to go buy the two bouquets "Stay here, I'll be right back" said the teenage to the blonde haired girl who nodded with her head, she rested her back against the wall of a jewelry shop that stood right next to the flower shop. Sulfus didn't take too long, he had just taken around 5 minutes, one of the bouquets was composed by red roses and tulips, the other one was smaller and was composed by roses of three colors, red, blue and white.

The visit to the graves of his friend's parents didn't take more than a few little minutes, he didn't even say a word, he had just placed the roses on the grave of Mrs. Eryn and the tulips on the grave of Mr. Eryn, he cleaned the dust that covered the stones where were the photos and descriptions of the two. Then he left...he was going to that special place but he wanted to go alone...and right now he was accompanied by Nymph.

"Nymph..." he called, the girl turned to him "I need to go to a place...but I need to go alone...okay? Maybe you should go back home, I will go there when I'm finished" Nymph seemed a bit confused and somehow...sad? For which reason didn't he want her to come with him? But she nodded, turning her back to him and started to walk in the house's direction. Sulfus sighed before he took a different path.

He soon arrived at the top of the field where there stood a tree, right now there were no leaves but at Spring's time it blossomed there cherry blossom flowers. It was something that he and Raf loved to see happening, something they never lost. The teenager touched the tree's trunk and caressed the cold wood. A small smile appeared on his lips before he squatted down and now was standing in front of a small stone. It wasn't a stone like those that were at the cemetery, it was a stone that he, not too long after the death of the Eryn, had looked for so he could sculpt the words he had never been able to tell Raf, since the young girl's body had never been found...at the stone you could read the next words:

_You will always be in my memory_

The stone was laying against a piece of soil that he had made when he had gone to that place to put the stone...

He sighed sadly, placing the roses in front of the stone "I can't believe that it has already been 11 years...sometimes it seems to me that it still was yesterday that we played on the gardens of our houses...or when we pissed off our mothers when we jumped on the beds even when they explicitly told us to not do it..." he sighed again before he caressed the stone "I miss you..." that's when he heard steps coming from behind him, he turned around and came face to face with Nymph...a small angry look appeared on the boy's amber eyes, he had told her explicitly to go back home but after all she was stubborn and had followed him, what hadn't she understand in part that he wanted to go alone?

He stood up and walked to her, he stared at her...the girl seemed scared with the angered look that was in his amber eyes...she had screwed up, she realized that as soon as he turned to her and looked at her with that look that scared her...she looked down and was about to turn her back to him when he grabbed her hand and forced her to come closer to him, both stared at each other in the eyes but not in the same way they had stared days ago when they had kissed...

"Don't do it again...don't follow me when I tell you that I want to be alone..." he murmured at her ear, the girl became even more scared and shocked with the voice tone he had used with her, he had never talked to her that way...the girl only nodded, hesitating, as if she was afraid that anything she did would make him even more angry...she let herself be dragged when he went down the field, still having a good grip on her hand...

They keep walking in silence...not that she was capable of saying something even though she wanted to, she wanted to apologize to him for having followed him...but she couldn't...and even if she could maybe it wasn't the best time to do it...maybe these words would only make him angrier, so she keep walking, head bowed...

They soon arrived home, however when they walked in, they saw something they weren't excepting to see...his parents were at the living room talking with two policemen, they couldn't hear what they were talking about so they approached a bit more, the four of them noticed that both had finally arrived home, they stood up from their places.

"Good evening...?" said Sulfus, speaking these words with certain hesitation and confusion, what were the two policemen doing at his home? He saw the two policemen facing each other before they looked at something that was in the hands of one of them.

"Is it really her?" asked one of the policemen to the other, that one raised his head and nodded

"Yes, it's her" he said before he and his partner approached the two teenagers

"Excuse me?" said Sulfus still not understanding the situation

"We came to get that girl"

TBC...


	10. Why?

**The Waterfall's Nymph**

**Chapter 10 – Why?**

Why? Why had he done something like this to her? What had she done to him to...deserve this? Had she done something wrong to him? Yes it's true that sometimes she might annoy him a little with her excessive curiosity but...had she annoyed him so much to reach the point of having him doing what he did? Why? Sitting on a corner, with her legs against her chest and her head hidden between her knees, tears spouted out from her eyes and fell silently down her cheeks...as the memories of a week ago came back to her mind once again...

_"Is it really her?"_

_"Yes, it's her"_

_"Excuse me?" said Sulfus_

_"We came to get that girl" answered one of the cops, the dark haired boy frowned, he wasn't understand the reason of why they wanted to take Nymph, he looked at his parents who also had stood up from the sofa and had approached, he hoped at least for them to explain clearly what was going on. His mother instead of speaking up approached them even more and put her arms, comfortably, around Nymph._

"_May someone just tell what the hell is going on here?" said Sulfus, he saw one of the cops taking out a transparent bag that had something inside there, after well analyzed, the boy understood that it was a necklace, a pearl necklace._

"_We received a complaint that a pearl necklace was stolen and it was described to us that this young girl was the stealer" the boy looked at the two cops, incredulous, Nymph stole? It was impossible!_

"_I don't believe in it" affirmed the boy_

"_Well you better believe in it, boy. The necklace was found on her bedroom and we also have a photo that shows us the moment of the stealing" explained one of the cops, taking out a photo from his pocket, the same moments ago h had in his hand, Sulfus took the photo in his hand and widened his eyes when he realized that the girl in the photo was without any doubts Nymph: the girl at the photo had the same blonde hair, the same celestial blue eyes, the same white rose hanging on the hair and exactly the same clothes she had worn about two days ago, he remembered both had gone out for a walk and that he had left her alone for a few moments to go buy a few things he needed...in the hands of the girl at the photo was the pearl necklace being hidden inside the jacket's pocket..._

_Was it really true that she had used that time to steal the necklace? But why? Why did she need a pearl necklace? That was when the words of a few nights ago that he had heard his father say and that for a long time had stayed wandering around his mind: _I don't trust that girl...

_The proof that she had committed that crime was at this very moment in his hands...and the cops had found the necklace in-between her belongings...he felt an anger that he hadn't felt for a very long time, he suddenly turned to the young blonde haired girl that was still in his mother's arms._

"_How could you?" he said suddenly to the girl, she looked at him confused "How could you have done something like this?"_

"_Sulfus..." said Seraph, sending him a reproving look as if warning him to not talk like that...however the boy didn't listen to her and keep using the same tone_

"_I trusted you, I thought you were different! I never gave up on you when someone turned against you, I protect you from these people, I brought you to my house and you do this? You steal a necklace?" Ninfa jumped when she heard that, no, no, it was a lie, she hadn't done such a thing! She shook her head continuously, denying having done such a thing, she walk to him, grabbed his arm, begging with her eyes for him to believe in her, on her innocence! But Sulfus didn't do that, on the contrary, he rudely removed his arm from the girl's grip which somehow nearly caused her to fall, but she managed to keep her balance._

"_You can stop with the disguise, maybe it's even true what I heard my father say...maybe you're not even mute, you made it all up only to approach me and my family!" Nymph keep shaking her head, trying to make him believe in her, he was wrong; she hadn't been the one stealing that necklace! But the next words told by the boy affected her in such a way..._

"_I don't believe in you__"_

_The impact of these words on the girl's heart had been so much that the girl froze completely in that place, her crystalline blue eyes widened as never before...and as if affected as well by the words, the string of the music box's necklace that she had begun to wear around her neck, broke and the small music box slowly fell on the floor, echoing through the room..._

_Tears formed up on the girl's eyes, tears that quickly began to slide down her face...she didn't even know if she was breathing...her hands started shaking...her mouth dropped...she was too shocked to react...so shocked that she didn't even fought when the cops took her arms and guided her out of the house...she only had on her mind the hard words of Sulfus and the hatred look he had given to her..._

Stupid, stupid! She should have never believed in him, she should have never trusted in him! The alpha male, that even though was an animal had raised her since she remembered, had been always right, he didn't trust in him until the very last minute and always had motives to do so...she instead had trusted too much in him, she had trusted him blindly, she had showed him all the secret places of the place she lived, place that should never be discovered by anyone...

And it was because of that blind trust that she was here now...arrested on that cell...like a bird locked up on a cage...ever since she had arrived there that she had lost her appetite, she had lost her will to sleep, she simply stayed there, shrunk on a corner of that dark cell...only Seraph and Elisabeth had come to visit her two days ago, Nymph didn't even try to get away from Sulfus' mother, it was with the boy she was hurt, now she didn't even want to see him in front of her but his mom...his mom had been an angel, she had gone to her, she had hugged her, comforted her as she cried and shook in her arms, she had told her that she and Elisabeth believed in her innocence...these last words had comforted her somehow but not enough, the person she most wanted to believe in her, didn't believe...he had abandoned her...

As if all of this wasn't enough, for a little while she hasn't been feeling well, the cell was cold and wet, however Nymph sweated a lot and felt too hot. She tried to stand up from the corner where she always had been sitting and tried to walk towards what in the prison they called a bed, but as soon as she stood up, she had to hold herself against the wall so she wouldn't fall, her vision was turve, unfocused, she couldn't see well the forms...that was when she didn't hang on any longer and fell to the floor, everything around her started becoming dark...

~*.*~*.*~

It was Christmas Day and however Sulfus didn't felt like celebrating anything at all...he couldn't take her out of his mind...it has been a week since they had taken her and however the memories of her didn't disappear from his mind...he felt betrayed, he had trusted in her and she had broken that trust...why had she stolen that necklace? His father had always been right, she hide a lot of things and now he could see why...however he couldn't get rid of the weight of a guilty feeling that he felt in his heart...maybe he had been too hard on her or maybe not...he had seen the state she had stayed after he had told her these words...

_I don't believe in you_

He still remembered clearly how the tears had fallen from the girl's eyes, how her crystalline blue eyes had widened...in his hand was now the small music box that had stayed behind when Nymph was taken by the cops...he opened it and let the soft melody play...he remembered well when he told her the story of Raf and on that same day he had told her to wear the small music box around her neck as if it was a necklace...

It came back to his memory a Summer day they had spent together, it was a day where Nymph had showed him one of the many hideouts of the place she lived

"_Are you sure this liana is safe? It seems to me that it's going to break anytime soon!" said Sulfus when he held the old liana, he had to balance in it to be able to reach the other side of the land, under them stood the lake and they were a few good feet from it, not that the dark haired boy was afraid of heights, but he didn't really want to fall down there...Nymph nodded with her head and took the liana, she took some impulse and balanced towards the other side, landing there perfectly, then she threw the liana to him meaning it was his turn to do it._

_Sulfus sighed, grabbed the liana tightly, he took some impulse and balanced just like she had done so he could reach the other side. However it seemed like the nature was against him, on the moment his feet were about to touch the land, the liana broke and the boy fell into the water, making a huge splash._

_He came to the surface as soon as he could, obviously he was completely wet, he looked daggers at the blonde haired girl who was a few feet above his head with a funny face "Oh so it is safe huh?" he barely had time to react because when he realized, the girl had thrown herself next to him, inside the water._

Suddenly Sulfus stopped the melody, closing the music box in his hand, a hatred look suddenly filled up his amber eyes, damn it! He couldn't stop thinking about her, damn it! He looked with anger at the object in his hand and with intentions of throwing it to the floor to break it, he raised his hand in the air but then...it started shaking...the object fell on the bed's blanket... the boy's hand keep shaking...he couldn't...he couldn't do it...he couldn't break that music box...he couldn't get rid of Nymph's memories...

That was when Seraph walked in the room, weirdly she didn't even knock, she closed the door strongly so her son would raise his head and realize that she was there in the room...and that was what exactly happened...

"We need to talk" she said using a hard tone

"If it's about what I'm thinking then forget it, I'm not talking..." answered the boy

"But you will"

"Will you make me?"

"If it's needed, yes and you'll listen to me either you want or not!" said Seraph walking towards her son, sitting down next to him on the bed, the boy was about to stand up so he wouldn't have to listen to his mother but she grabbed his arms and forced him to sit down again on the bed "Sulfus Zolfanello, you will listen to me!"

"I don't want to talk about her!"

"But you will talk! You will talk because you committed an injustice!"

"Oh I was the one who committed injustice? She was the one who stole that necklace! She betrayed my trust!"

"No Sulfus, you betrayed her trust in you! She trusted you, she always trusted that you would be there to protect her and however you turned your back on her when she more needed you while she always was with you on the hardest moments!"

"I didn't turn my back on her, I simply realized who she really is and she is nothing more than a stealer, a liar-"

_PLAF_

Sulfus touched his face that was now turning red, his mother had never slapped him...and he also had never seen her so angry before...

"You turned your back on her Sulfus" affirmed Seraph "You have no idea in the state she is, in the state you put her in when you told her that"

"And I suppose you know..."

"I do, I do more than you think. I went to visit her two days ago with your sister, she is very down, the guards told me that she hasn't been eating anything, she hasn't been sleeping, all they see her do is cry, shrunk in a corner, she doesn't react to anything"

"Oh and I'm the culpable of all of it?"

"Partly yes you are, she wanted you to believe on her innocence, for you to support her now that she needed you. She trusted more in you than she ever trusted me..."

"I saw the proof, the necklace was in-between her things, that photo proved that she was guilty!"

"Forget what you saw, instead of that listen to your heart, deep inside there what does your heart tells you? Do you really think she would do such a thing?"

Sulfus didn't answer for a few moments, then he shook his head "I don't know...I don't know what to believe..."

That was when a soft knock on the door interrupted the conversation of the two of them. The door opened and Bianca walked in "I'm sorry if I disturb but Miss Kabale Rosso is here and needs to talk urgently with Mister Sulfus" Sulfus frowned...Kabale wanted to talk to him? Why? And above all with urgency?

"Let her in" Bianca stepped aside and Kabale walked in slowly on the boy's bedroom, she seemed nervous, so much that he saw her putting a piece of her hair behind her ear, a sign of nervousness. He thought he had seen her gulping...

"Sulfus I need to talk to you...it's really important...it's about that girl..."

"You want to talk with me about Nymph...?" said slowly the boy

"Yes I do...she...she is very ill"

TBC...


	11. No forgiving

**The Waterfall's Nymph**

**Chapter 11 – No Forgiving**

"What do you mean with 'very sick'?" said Sulfus, his voice with no doubt showed worry, even after what had happened, deep inside he still worried and cared a lot for Nymph...

"Let me explain everything from the beginning..." said the girl, sitting down on a chair next to Sulfus' bed where he and his mother were both sitting. She opened her purse and took out something from there, giving it to Sulfus. He took it and realized it was a CD, he looked at his ex-girlfriend, confused but somehow suspicious..."She is innocent...it wasn't her who stole that pearl necklace...moreover, that necklace was never stolen..."

"What...?"

"The proof is in your hands, this CD can prove that she is innocent..." still suspicious Sulfus ended up giving into the curiosity of knowing if what she was saying was true or not, so he turned on his laptop and put the CD in there, a paste opened that had a few files in there

"What is this?"

"The photo that proved that she was the one responsible for the stealing..." said the girl clicking on an image that was the same one Sulfus had seen, he was about to tell her he already knew about it but the girl continued immediately "...it's fake" this made Seraph and Sulfus even more confused, what did she mean? Kabale answered the question by clicking on two other images, there appeared the same photo of Nymph but without the necklace and on another the necklace itself.

Seeing this Sulfus didn't want to believe..."You mean that...all this time it was a photo manipulation...?"

"Yes, Sulfus, that's exactly what I mean..." Sulfus had to sit down...he couldn't believe in what he saw...the photo he had seen a week ago was nothing but a photo manipulation...Nymph had never stolen that pearl necklace, she was innocent...somebody had framed her...but that was a question that only Kabale could answer...he frowned when he thought about that and turned back to face his ex-girlfriend.

"Kabale...how did you have access to this...? If you had access to this CD that is the only proof in how Nymph is innocent...then it's because you have something to do with what happened...did you do this?"

The girl shook her head slowly "I only found out today...I have nothing to do with it...I found out just by chance when I heard this conversation..."

"Kabale...tell me...who did this...?" said the boy cautiously, trying to control his anger

She shook her head again "I can't tell...but this CD is enough to proof that she didn't anything bad...so, you can go pick her up at the prison" not being able to hold himself back any longer, the boy grabbed her by her arms tightly and stared at her hard, shaking her with every word he would say

"Tell me who did this! A girl was arrested for something she didn't even do! Tell me who framed her, WHO, I know you know who it was! Stop covering that person and tell me who it is!"

Tears started running down the girl's cheeks "It was my father okay?"

"Your father...?"

"Y-Yes...I d-don't why he did this, I swear I don't know but...today when I was going to his office...I...I heard this conversation between him and a man...by the type of the conversation he seemed to be paying him for a well done job and...I saw him putting the CD inside the table's drawer and...I don't know, I don't know why he would do something like that but I couldn't handle!" she said still crying "I know I told you I would get revenge for you having left me the way you did but I would never be able to do this, I have nothing to do with what happened to her! I know I can appear to be the kind of person that would do something like this but...the truth is that I'm not and...as soon as I found out that she was innocent...I couldn't carry this weight on my conscience in knowing that she was arrested for something she didn't even do and that I knew that and wouldn't do anything...so I went to the prison and showed them the CD...I told them it was my father but, nothing proves that it was him ordering the stealing...unless they catch the man who he was talking to, they can't do anything against him...they didn't come here to bring her yet because...she is very sick, I saw her with my own eyes, she was burning up with fever"

"And...the necklace...?"

"It was my mother's necklace...my father simulated the stealing and I don't know he managed to get it in the middle of that girl's things...then he just needed to make an anonymous call...and that was enough..." Sulfus released the now red arms of Kabale, he was in shock...he couldn't react...what had he done...? He had blamed Nymph, he hadn't believed in her and after all he was really innocent...and to make things even worse, she now was sick...he had to settle things...

"I..." he started staring at the girl "I can only thank you for having done this for her..."

"I didn't do it for her, I did it for you...you may not have understood yet but I did, it's noticeable in a huge distance that you like her and that she likes you...our story may have not worked out...when you truly love someone, we need to learn to forgive and let him go...and that's what I'm doing...I don't want to become an avenging person...I just wanted to be happy and I believed that I would have that happiness next to you but...seems like I was wrong..." she looked down...

That when suddenly Sulfus hugged her, she was caught by surprise and so didn't even react "I repeat again that I thank you for what you did for her...that shows that you have got a good heart and...that you're not like your father...I know I shouldn't say this but whatever it was the reason that made him do this...it can't be forgiven..."

"No you're right...I'm still trying to understand why...he has changed...he wasn't like this..." she looked down but only for a few seconds "Now go, you have to go and get her" Sulfus nodded and together with his mother left the room, both entered in the car but before they left Seraph had called the doctor that always went to their house when one of them was sick, she told him to go to the house because they were going to get someone who needed help.

~*.*~*.*~

At the prison they were guided to the cell where Nymph was, there was a guard together with her checking her temperature and by her face, it seemed to be very high, the young girl shook underneath the blankets that covered her and had her face completely red. Sulfus thought his heart was going to stop when he saw that...

"She hasn't been eating at all ever since she got here, I'm the one who is responsible to bring food to her and she didn't eat once, as to sleep it's exactly the same thing. It's very probable that both these two things are the cause she is like this" explained the guard

"Did you gave her some medicine?" asked Seraph

"Yes, we had to force her to eat some food so the medication would have effect, but I don't understand why the fever hasn't gone down yet, we have given her the medicine a while ago"

"Because she hasn't taken the medication..." said suddenly Sulfus, who now was next to Nymph, crouched down, in one of his hands was the pill that Nymph should have taken..."It was hidden under the pillow...she never took the medication, so the fever hasn't gone down"

"But how? I stayed here until I was sure she had taken it" said the guard

"Probably she faked to have swallowed it and when you left, she spit it out..." said the boy, wrapping the girl's body in the blankets and picking her up in his arms, Seraph helped him put her head against his shoulder. The three left the prison as fast as they could. Sulfus spent the whole trip back home with Nymph in his arms, he was worried about her temperature, probably it was reaching 102ºF and that was no good...

When they got home, the doctor was already there who, after they took Nymph inside her bedroom, started immediately taking care of her. The only one who remained inside the room was Seraph together with the doctor, Sulfus and Elisabeth had stayed outside the bedroom, the reason the first had remained outside was because he had to tell everything to his father.

About an hour later the doctor and Seraph left the room. Sulfus stood up from the chair he had been sitting on as soon as he saw them, anxious for the news "Is she going to be okay?"

"Yes, she certainly will. This time I made sure that she swallowed the medication, a few days of resting and she shall be back to the normal. But be careful; don't let her catch cold air, which would only worsen her state"

Sulfus hesitated "Is...she awake...?"

"Yes she is but if you want to talk to her, don't take much time, she needs to rest" the boy nodded and walked in the room, she was awake just like the doctor had said and she was turned to the door's side...as soon as she saw him walking in, the boy couldn't help but show her a small smile...which she didn't even returned...she just looked away, looking at whatever she wanted, she just didn't want to look at him...not after what he did to her...

The small and hesitant smile on Sulfus face disappeared as soon as this happened, he looked down a bit and sighed...he should have excepted this...but still he approached her, sitting on the bed, as soon as he did that, the girl turned on the bed, turning her back to him...

"Nymph..." he said slowly..."I know that you're angry...you have reasons to be...but I'm sorry, I should have never doubted you..."

She didn't even react, Sulfus tried to touch her arm but she immediately escaped from his touch, he sighed again "I know that this isn't an excuse for what I did to you...but on that day I was already so bothered that when I saw that photo, it was the last straw...I exploded completely and didn't even think about what I was saying..." this time he managed to put his hand on her shoulder "But I promise that it won't happen ever again, I-"

He didn't even manage to finish talking because the girl stood up from the bed suddenly and pushed him away from her, tears were running down her cheeks, you could see the pain in the girl's blue eyes, she was really hurt with him and wouldn't forgive him that easily...staring into these eyes Sulfus understood that...the girl laid down on the bed again and turned once more her back on him, the boy took that as a 'go away' sign. For now he would leave...but he wouldn't give up, he would get her trust back.

But when he left that room he felt devastated...Seraph and Elisabeth looked at him as if waiting to know how the conversation had gone, he just shook his head "She doesn't want to see me..."

Elisabeth frowned "And she has all the rights to be!" Sulfus looked at her surprised "She trusted you and you betrayed her trust!"

"Elisabeth Marie Zolfanello, don't talk like that with your brother!" scolded Seraph but the little girl just run into her bedroom "Elisabeth come back here!"

"She is right mom..." said Sulfus, his mother turned to him "I ruined everything...we had a very strong connection and I...ruined everything..."

"But you can't give up"

"I won't give up...but maybe it's better if I leave her alone for a while..."

~*.*~*.*~

On the next morning Sulfus was awaken with someone shaking him "Wake up!"

"Elisabeth what do you want..." grumbled the boy, still sleepy...

"Nymph is missing!" yelled the little girl, the boy sat up on the bed immediately

"What?"

"Me and mom went this morning to her bedroom to check how she was and she was gone! The sheets of her bed were tied to the bed's bar making a cord towards the window!"

"Damnit!" in a blink of eyes he had changed clothes and run downstairs

"Where are you going Sulfus?" asked his father, the boy had the door already opened

"I'm going to get her"

"But there is a snowstorm!"

"Exactly! I can't leave her out there in the state she is!" he run outside the house, he went to the stables and after he had saddle up Basilisk, he galloped towards the forest as fast as he could, the forest was the only place where he was sure she had gone to and sick as she was Nymph couldn't have gone too far. And actually it didn't take him too long until he found a clue of her, the white rose of her hair was in the middle of the snow. Sulfus took the rose in his hand and looked forward; trying to see better what was in front of him...

It didn't take him too long to notice a figure laying down in the middle of the snow, covered by it. He run there and realized that it was indeed Nymph; she was unconscious and cold...very cold...

TBC...


	12. Life in Danger

**The Waterfall's Nymph**

**Chapter 12 – Life in danger**

Seeing the girl sprawled in the middle of the snow, without reacting, Sulfus didn't hesitate one more second in climbing down the horse and run to her. He took her in his arms, taking her out of the snow, shivering when he noticed how cold she was. The girl's face was still red, her breathe was cold and hard, the young boy took immediately his jacket and evolved Nymph in it, to keep her warm.

"Hang on Nymph, please..." he murmured, he couldn't take her back home, he had to take her to the hospital, she was too sick...

~*.*~*.*~

There he was now; it had been nearly an hour since he had arrived there with Nymph in his arms. She had been taken immediately to the urgency room and he had stayed there, in the waiting room, in the deepest worry, without getting any kind of news about her state...he had his hands between his head, as he sighed for hundredth time ever since he got there...after they had taken Nymph, he had called his mother to give her the news, she told him they would be there soon.

He hated hospitals...he hated these white walls, he hated the smell that he found in every single hall he passed...he looked at the clock, seemed like the pointers just didn't move from the same place, maybe because minute after minute he would look at it...he was driving crazy...he stood up from the chair he had been sitting on, deciding to go for a walk on the halls and find someone who could give him any news about his friend's situation...

Friend...was that what she was to him? Just a friend? He still didn't know and that worried him, annoyed him...it had been his feelings the origin of all of this, his confusion about what he felt towards the girl had ended up creating a fragility in their lace of connection that both had created...his friendship with her was hanging by thread, it was on the slack line...and all because he just couldn't figure out what he felt for her...

At this very moment he hated himself...he passed by a room and casually he looked inside of it, there stood a small family, a mother, a father and two children, he didn't know if the children were siblings or just two friends, but whatever it was their relationship, the two of them seemed very close to each other. It seemed like the little boy was sick and that the girl had just given him a small and simple present to make him recover fast...

Sulfus felt a small punch in his heart when he realized how familiar that scene was to him...yes...he remembered it well...

"_Here" said little Sulfus as he sat down on the chair standing next to the hospital bed where his friend was, yes Raf was a little sick but nothing she couldn't recover from, soon she would be able to go home. However her best friend as soon as he found out about that, he didn't take too long in going to visit her._

_The little girl took in her hand the rectangular blue box that the boy had given to her, she opened it curious in finding out what was inside of it. Her blue eyes filled up with happiness when she saw what it was "A white rose!"_

"_I know it's your favorite" said Sulfus, scratching the back of his head, a little embarrassed "When I found out that you were sick...I decided to bring it...to help you feel better"_

"_It's beautiful Sulfus, thank you" said the little girl, hugging him "You're the best friend in the world!"_

Right...they were the best friends...but destiny was cruel and a month after that day it took his best friend far away, to a place he would never be able to reach her, at least until his time to go didn't arrive...that friendship was so strong that maybe in the future could have become something more...but she had gone on a trip without any possible return...destiny had taken Raf from him but 14 years later put Nymph on his way, which caused a total disorientation in his life...and he still didn't know the meaning of that disorientation...

Sulfus sighed, closed his eyes and laid against the wall "Was it you who send her to take care of me, Raf...?" he murmured lowly "I don't understand why you have sent someone who looks just like you...someone who I have a huge trouble in communicating with...someone who I don't even know what I feel for...help me understand this..."

Then he felt something pulling on his pants, he looked down and saw the same little girl he had seen inside the room minutes ago "Sir, who are you talking to?"

Sulfus was caught by surprise by that question but then a small smile appeared on his lips and he crouched down until he was at the girl's height "Do you believe in angels?" the little girl looked at him confused but then nodded "Well...I have got a friend who is really sick and I was asking an angel to help her recover"

A smile appeared on the girl's lips "Then she will get better! I did the same with my friend and today he is much better!"

"I sure hope so...I have already lost someone very important to me, I don't want to go through that again..."

"Lily! Come on dear, let's go home" called a woman, the little girl said goodbye to Sulfus and run to her mother, the boy sighed and stood up...he hoped that girl was right and that Nymph would recover soon...that was when his father, mother and sister came in and walked to him

"How is she, Sulfus?" asked the mother

The young boy shook his head, without even looking at them "I don't know anything yet...I have been here for a damn hour and they haven't dared to tell anything yet!" he said, furious...he hit a hand against a wall

"Hitting with your hand on the wall and yell won't make them come and tell you news faster" said the father

"I'm just tired of waiting...if they are taking so long then that means that it's grave..." murmured the boy...but seemed like his begging's were heard because soon a doctor came and walked up to them

"Are you the young boy who accompanied the blonde girl with fever here?" he asked

"Yes that's me, how is she?" asked the boy, anxious for news

"Unfortunately she is not alright, we did everything we could but the fever is too high and she has entered in a coma" this new caught everyone by surprise

"C-Coma...?" murmured Sulfus, shocked...he knew Nymph wasn't alright but not so much to reach the point in entering in a coma..."And...how long will it take for her to wake up...?"

"It's hard to say...the coma is deep, it can take days, weeks, months, even years until she wakes up, unfortunately I have to say that she might not even wake up...only a miracle can save her..." Sulfus let himself fall on a chair and he put his hands between his head...he couldn't believe it...he couldn't believe that she situation was so grave...

"It's my entire fault..." he murmured low

"Sulfus don't say that" said Seraph, putting a hand on his shoulder, the boy shook his head and the mother ended up noticing that her son's amber eyes were watery...he too noticed that but he immediately rubbed them with his hand. In 14 years he hadn't shaded a single tear; it wouldn't be now that he would do it.

He stood up from the chair "I'm going out..." he said, still looking down

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to get the only thing that can save her..."

~*.*~*.*~

He went through the forest with Basilisk; it still was snowing but not as much as it had been an hour ago...he stared at the road with determination, he was going to save her, he HAD to save her, even if it was the last thing he would do...he wouldn't lose her, he wasn't going to lose her as he had lost Raf, he wouldn't allow that...if there was something that could wake her up from that deep coma, that would be the water from the secret place...just a little bit of that water would be enough to wake her up...

He was close to the zone where he could find the place Nymph lived, where both had shared funny moments and had shared things he thought he would never share. He heard owls, wolves...but he didn't find it very important, it was probably Nymph's wolves, and they knew him...

But he quickly took that idea out of his head when three wolves jumped in front of him, causing Basilisk to stop abruptly his running, raising his front legs in the air, risking to making Sulfus fall in case he didn't held tightly the reins. He could hear the snarls of the wolves and that's when he noticed that it weren't the grey wolves that he knew: they were black wolves.

Just like the wolves he met, these also had shape tooth and claws, drool fell from between their tooth, they seemed hungry and to them nothing better than a human and his horse to kill their hungry. Three more wolves came up behind the boy, as he keep trying to calm down the horse who wouldn't stop raising his legs in the air, scared with all these wolves.

Too much exaltation ended up causing Sulfus' fall from the horse to the ground, the black wolves approached him even more, the boy didn't hesitate in grabbing a boulder and threw it at one of the wolves...bad idea...that only made the animals even angrier...

One of them was about to jump at the young boy, who closed his eyes and waited for the end to arrive...but it didn't...he heard another snarling and when he opened his eyes he saw right in front of him the huge and majestic alpha male from the pack of the grey wolves...this one was bigger than any of the black wolves who were in front of him and it didn't take too long until they gave up in trying to make the boy their lunch...

Sulfus stared at the wolf still shocked with what had just happened...the animal turned to him and he could see that even though it had saved him, the black eyes of the wolf seemed angry...and he knew why...

He sighed "I don't know how but it seems that you already know what happened..." he murmured...the wolf just began walking towards the cave's direction, Sulfus didn't take too long in following him, he stood up, grabbed the reins of Basilisk and followed the wolf...

They walked silently through the cave until they finally arrived to the other side...and what the teenager boy saw left him even more shocked than when he had received the new that Nymph had gone into a coma...he couldn't hang anymore and fell on his knees...all his hopes to save the young girl disappeared in the cold winter air...he couldn't believe in his eyes...

The place...the trees...the rocks...the waterfall...the lake...

...

...

...

...

...

Were frozen...

TBC...


	13. Despair

**The Waterfall's Nymph**

**Chapter 13 – Despair**

The place…the trees…the rocks…the waterfall...the lake...

...

...

...

...

...

Were frozen...

"What...happened here..." murmured the dark haired boy, still incredulous; his amber eyes were still widened due to the shock...he remembered that Nymph had explained to him that this place was protected by magic and so it never suffered the climate changing as the rest of the forest did...if that place started suffering the same changings as the rest...then it meant it was losing its magic...

"I don't understand..."

"I will explain everything to you" said suddenly a voice, Sulfus looked around himself confusing and tried to find out where that mysterious voice had come from, it had been a soft, calm and serene voice...and also a female voice..."Up here, boy" the boy looked above his head and nearly didn't scream or had an heart attack when he saw that what was in front of his eyes was a woman...but it wasn't a normal woman...she...was...different...she seemed...transparent? A spirit? And besides she being transparent, she was crystal blue! Completely blue, from her hair to her feet, from her eyes to her clothes!

"Calm down boy, I don't need anyone else sick here..." she murmured, keeping her serene tone without even showing any kind of will to laugh due to the young boy's reaction.

"And...who are you...?"

"My name doesn't matter...all you have to know is that I'm the person or better saying the spirit who possesses the magic that protects this place...or maybe should I say that protected this place..." she stared at the boy with her intense blue eyes but at the same it was a cold look that somehow made Sulfus shiver.

He remained in silence for a while "This is my entire fault isn't it...? I am the cause of this being like this..."

"Indeed you are...this place is connected with her and now that she is in a coma, the magic is disappearing"

"Her? You mean Nymph?"

The woman shook her head "That's not her real name but I'm not going to be the one who is going to tell you who she really is, you will have to find out by yourself" Sulfus was confused...who she really was...? What did she mean with this..."When she first came here, it was me who taught her all the magic she now possesses, she is the one who knows how to control the magic water from this like and much more than that...you promised you would take care of her..."

Sulfus looked down "I know..."

"And however you betrayed the trust she had in you"

"I know!"

"And that's why she is in a coma right now"

"I KNOW!" he yelled "I know all of that damn it! I know I promised to take care of her, that I wouldn't let anything bad happen to her, that I turned my back on her when she most needed me, that I betrayed all the trust she had in me, I KNOW that it's because of me that she is in a coma, I know it's because of me that she might never wake up again!" he continued, his body trembled completely "I know all of that damn it...but that's why I tried to save her...I knew that this water was the only way to wake her up, to have her recover...I tried to mend my errors but...I didn't know that my acts had been much more graves than it seemed..."

"At least you have got the courage to admit that you were wrong...many people wouldn't do that..."

"Maybe...but admit that I was wrong won't make her wake up, it won't save her..."

"That's where you are wrong..." she murmured, making the boy raise his head immediately towards her

"What...?"

The woman made something appear in her hand, from where Sulfus was standing he couldn't see very well what it was "This bottle...is the last of what's left of the magic water...I managed to get it as soon as I realized what was happening and that the lake was freezing...it's not much...but it's enough to save her" she threw the bottle in the boy's direction, he immediately caught it

"However..."

"However what...?"

"There is a condition you must accomplish, if you want that water to work..."

~*.*~*.* ~

Sulfus opened the hospital's door, he looked depressed...but why was he like that? He had the cure to save Nymph...and however he didn't seem very happy with that...this parents and sister were still in the waiting room, when they saw him his mother was the first to go to him.

"Sulfus I was worried about you, I didn't understand a thing when you told me that you were going to get the only thing that could save Nymph" she said placing her hands on his shoulders

"I..." he shook his head "I need to see her...do you know where her room is?"

The mother nodded "I was there a while ago. Come with me, the doctors allowed that at least one person remained with her" she explained as she guided him through the path, they arrived at the door of the room where Nymph was, Seraph opened it and let her son go in, he became...shocked when he saw all those machines and tubes around the girl. His mother didn't say a word and closed the door as soon as he entered; she knew he needed to be alone with her.

After a few minutes without moving from the place he was...Sulfus finally gained the courage to approach the bed where she was laying, he grabbed a chair that was there and sat down...he stared at the blonde haired girl...a bright of sadness and worry shone in the amber eyes of the boy...he didn't know what to say...

He looked down and saw what was in his hand...the bottle that the spirit had given to him...she was right, the water wasn't much but if she had said it was enough to save Nymph's life, then who was he to say the contrary? After all...she knew much more about Nymph than he, himself, did...Nymph...he knew perfectly well that this wasn't her real name because due to the fact she couldn't talk, it had been him giving her this name...but the woman's words keep echoing through his head...who was she truly? And what did she mean by having to be him finding out by himself who she was? That wasn't just what was in his mind...but also the condition imposed by the spirit so the water could work...

"_However..."_

"_However what...?"_

"_There is a condition you must accomplish, if you want the water to work..." Sulfus widened his eyes when he heard this...a condition...?_

"_And that would be...?"_

"_Your feelings"_

"_My feelings?" he repeated_

"_Yes, exactly...if you want the water to save her life then you must reveal to her your true feelings towards her..."_

"_W-What...? I don't understand, why must I do that? I...I don't remember Nymph having done that when she used the water to cure the scratches on my arms!"_

"_You're wrong about that, she might not be able to talk but deep inside her she always revealed worry and will to cure you. That's why the water cured your wounds that quickly...if you want that water to wake her up from the coma...then you must reveal your feelings towards her"_

What a mess he had got into...he had to do what in past few days had given him more trouble than anything else...his feelings for her...he didn't know what he felt for her! Did he consider her just a friend? Did he consider her like a second sister? Or did he love her? He doesn't know! He doesn't know what he feels for her...but that water was the only way for Nymph to wake up from the coma...so he would have to spend the next hours...or negatively thinking, the next days trying to figure out what he felt for her...

The beeps from the machine that showed the girl's heartbeats, made his own heart beat even faster...he was afraid...he was afraid that suddenly the many beeps that echoed in that room became one and long beep and that the lines of the machine became a continuous line...

He grabbed the girl's hand and caressed it with both his hands "Nymph..." he began "...please...I...I beg you...to be strong please..." he felt a knot in his throat and his voice breaking, however he resisted again the will to cry, of letting go the tears that he kept inside of him for long 14 years "...don't leave me you too...I don't want to lose you...I don't want to lose you the way I lost you..."

He stood up from his chair and bended over the girl's body, placing his lips on her very hot forehead, he opened his eyes and simply stared at her, he didn't say anything else, he just caressed her cheek and then her hair, taking out some of them from her face, placing it behind her ear...that was when something caught his attention...something...that he was sure he had seen already before...

He moved away some of the hair that covered her neck and confirmed what he had seen...his eyes widened and his jaw dropped when realized what it was...

"No...no it can't be..."

TBC...


	14. Tears of Love

**The Waterfall's Nymph**

**Chapter 14 – Tears of Love**

"No...no it can't be" Sulfus just couldn't believe in what he was seeing in front of him...that mole...it was impossible, it couldn't be true! There was only one person he knew that had that same mole, on the same spot on the neck, with that same shape...! And that person was Raf...

What was going on here...? He put a hand on his head...and then shook it...the minutes went on and he still didn't know how to react before what he had just seen...the boy didn't know what to do, so he walked out of the room where he was and went to the place his mother could be found, his father wasn't there anymore neither was his sister, after all it was already night and the little one was probably already very sleepy.

Sulfus approached his mother, who got scared in seeing him, believing that something bad had happened to Nymph, that her condition had gotten worse but then she became very confused when she heard her son's story...so much that she, herself, had to go in the room and see the mole with her very eyes...and it was true...it was the same birthmark with the shape of a bell that little Raf had on her neck...but what did this mean...? Raf was supposed to have died in that night 11 years ago...

"I just don't understand..." murmured Seraph

"If you don't understand, then neither I do...t-this is impossible! How come she has got the same birthmark that Raf has...?" he said while shaking his head

"Sulfus..." said Seraph, making the boy look at her "...I know you probably don't believe in this but...have you thought on the possibility of reincarnation?"

"Maybe I shouldn't believe in that stuff but ever since she entered in my life that I've believed in things that I didn't believe before...but yes I've already thought on that possibility...and I came to the conclusion that it's impossible"

"And why?"

"Think a little...if she is Raf's reincarnation, then she would have to be born on that same day...and she should have at least 11 years...which is impossible...does it look like to you that she is 11 years? So it's impossible that she is Raf's reincarnation..."

"You're right...she seems to be more or less your age..." the boy nodded "...then I can only see one possibility..."

"And that would be...?"

"Raf never died on that night..."

"W-What...? But it's-"

"It's not impossible, Sulfus. Think well, all the pieces fit perfectly, they never found her body in that night, and there was no trace of her not even nearby the river close to the house. She has got the same hair, the same eyes, even the same red tuft that Raf had, Sulfus, this can only meant that Nymph IS and has always been Raf for all this time"

"But then how did she...she...she can't talk...and besides wouldn't she have remembered me when we met again?"

Seraph shook her head "Sulfus, many thing happened on that night, Raf could have simply get lost when you two were escaping and was caught in the explosion, she could have been sent to a place where they never found her, she could have hit her head which would explain the amnesia and the trauma of the fire might have caused her to be mute"

"Makes...makes sense..." murmured the young boy, taking the girl's hand in his own, his mother approached him and put her hands on his shoulders

"Let's go home, it has been a long day" but the boy shook his head

"No...I...I want to stay here until she wakes up..."

"Sulfus...you know well that could take a long time to happen"

_'Not if I'm sincere with my feelings for her...'_ "No...I abandoned her when she most needed me...I'm not doing it again..."

"Sulfus..."

"Please mom...I want to stay here..."  
>Seraph sighed and gave in the request of her son; she kissed his head and left the room, deciding to go home as well. She would come back on the next day.<p>

Sulfus was still holding the girl's hand "After all you have always been here by my side..." he kissed her hand and then laid his head against the wall "Now that I've found you, I'm not letting you go ever again..."

On that night Sulfus didn't sleep...he stayed awake, watching over the person he thought he had lost a long time ago...he wanted her to wake up more than anything...on the next morning he had a tired and exhausted look in his eyes, he hadn't sleep a thing that night, not because he couldn't but because he didn't want to...he seemed to be afraid that she would suddenly wake up and he wouldn't see her do it, even though he knew perfectly well that she would only wake up once he confessed his feelings for her.

"You know..." he started; caressing her fingers "You probably don't remember it but...I still remember perfectly the day we met...and I'm not talking about the day in the woods...I mean when we were kids, we were both three years old..." he laughed a little "And I was in a bad humor that day...I think I scared you when you saw me for the first time..."

_"It's a great pleasure to see you again, my friend" said Edan as he shook his friend's hand and then hugged him, he hadn't seen him in ages!_

_"It's a pleasure to see you too, you can't imagine how happy I was when I found out you lived in this zone as well!" said "I see you have found a beautiful wife" he continued, kissing Seraph's hand in sign of courtesy, who couldn't help but blush and giggle a little._

_"I can say the same to you, you have got a very pretty wife" said Edan, doing the same gesture with his friends' wife_

_"And who is this big boy?" asked when he saw the three year old kid standing next to Edan, arms crossed and pouting look meaning he didn't want to be there_

_Edan put a hand on the boy's hair and messed up a little with his hair which caused the boy to pout even more "This big boy is my son, Sulfus. Sulfus come on, say hello to them"_

_Little Sulfus crossed his arms once again and looked at the Eryn "...Hi..."_

_"Well he sure is like you, with no doubt, Edan. Except he has got his mother's hair"_

_"And who is that adorable little girl?" said Seraph when she saw someone was hiding behind 's dress, this last one turned around and took her small hand_

_"Come on, Raf, don't be shy and come greet them"  
>The little girl still holding onto her mother's dress, looked at the Zolfanello, raised her tiny hand and said shyly "Hi..."<em>

_"Hey there honey, you know I think you and Sulfus are going to be great friends" said Seraph as she lowered down to the girl's size and taking her son's hand, she pulled him close to her, making a huge force because he was pushing back, not wanting to move from the place he was. In the end she managed to get him in front of the little girl, he kept his arms crossed and looked bored at the girl, who got scared by the deep look the boy was giving her and hide again behind her mother's dress._

_(The lyrics of the music that will now appear here are the translated lyrics of the Japanese song Eternal Snow, if you want, I recommend you to listen to it as you read this scene)_

_I fell in love with you...just how long has it been since then?_

_My feelings have only been getting stronger_

_I wonder...have you realized how I feel?_

_Even though I've never said a word..._

Sulfus chuckled slightly but seemed like a sarcastic chuckle...remembering these memories hurt him more than anything but now also sent to him some happiness knowing that after all Raf was there next to him...without him noticing, a small tear rolled down his cheek and fell on the two united hands of the teens. Then the boy noticed it but this time he didn't stop when more tears started rolling down, one after another, no stopping...there was no way to stop now...after all these years keeping inside of him all that sadness, he couldn't hide it any longer...the barrier has been broken and now the river was flowing down freely...

_It's like snowflakes drifting...gently..._

_...continuing to pile up higher and higher._

Sulfus held tighter the young girl's hand as he bit his lower lip slightly "I...I should have understood who you were as soon as I saw you...I've always seen ho similar you were to Raf but...I never joined the pieces that you could be her...in my head Raf died in that night and even though they never found her body, I never thought about the chance that she could be alive, somewhere...but after all you were always here with me, you never left me...but I did...I promised that I would always be by your side just like you always were by mine...but I broke that promise...in the moment you most needed me...I turned my back on you and...left you alone, helpless, without any kind of shelter..."

_Hold me tight...if this is how it feels..._

_The feeling of falling in love with someone..._

_I never wanted to know that feeling._

"But I swear, I promise that will never happen ever again...not just because now I know who you are...but also because...I...understood that..."

_I love you...I can't stop my tears from falling..._

_In that case then you..._

_...should never have come into my life._

"...that I love you...more than anything in this world..." confessed finally the boy, the tears keep falling from his eyes and that was when a bright blue light shone in the whole room, that light was coming from Sulfus' jacket pocket, who as soon as he realized that took immediately what was inside of it...it was the water...it was shining intensely...

_I wonder...how long will I keep thinking about you?_

_My breath is fogging up the window glass_

_My trembling heart is...next to the lit candle..._

_...and melting now. I wonder...will it survive?_

"What the..." that's when he realized...he had just confessed his feelings for her...that light...was it a sign that he should use the water now to wake her up...?

_Hold me tight...so tight that I might break..._

_...so that when we meet in the frigid gale of a blizzard..._

_...I won't be cold anymore._

Sulfus stared at the young girl laying on the bed before his eyes and then at the liquid that would save her...that would wake her up...that would bring her back to him...he had to do this quickly before someone noticed the bright of the light and entered in the room...

_I miss you...I think about you...so far away..._

_With this hand knit muffler..._

_...I'm here alone, holding myself again tonight._

The boy leaned in the bed, with lots of careful he removed the oxygen mask, he had to be quick, in the case her breath began failing and she needed urgently the mask back.

_If the snow keeps on falling forever..._

_...will it cover up my feelings for you?_

He opened the bottle that had inside of it the water and holding the girl's head with another hand, he made her drink the water that soon would wake her up.

_Hold me tight...if this is how it feels..._

_The feeling of falling in love with someone..._

_I never wanted to know that feeling._

He put back the mask on her face and waited for her to open her eyes...

_I love you...its filling up my heart..._

_I want to shout to the winter sky..._

_I want to meet you right now._

But that never happened...Raf...Nymph...she was still in the same position...her eyelids wouldn't move, giving the sign that she was waking up...nothing...there wasn't any sign, any indication that she was waking up...this caused a big impact on the boy's heart...

Why? Why hadn't it worked...? He...he had been sincere with his feelings for her...why hadn't the water wake her up..? Was...was he too late...?

"No..." murmured Sulfus "Please wake up...please...I beg you..." and he fell on the bed, exhausted, falling asleep...but still with his hand holding the girl's...and with the last tears rolling down his cheeks to the white sheets...

Everything was so dark...she couldn't find her way back...there was no light to guide her out of there...she didn't want to be in that eternal darkness...she felt alone...she felt cold...but then a very tiny light appeared above her head and seemed to be calling her...

That tiny light started becoming bigger and stronger reaching the point that she couldn't see anything...and then...

Her blue eyes opened...

TBC...


	15. Love and Doubt

**Hello everyone just a quick note before we begin the chapter, it is important! I've decided to change the ages Raf and Sulfus had when the fire happened, changing them from 4 to 6 and so changing as well the years that passed since then from 14 to 11! I've already changed it all on the other chapters!**

**The Waterfall's Nymph**

**Chapter 15 – Love and Doubt**

Nymph stared at the white ceiling, she didn't know where she was, nor what had exactly happened...and the things she remembered, everything was very vague...she only remembered laying on the bed, at Sulfus' house, and having run away, trying to come back to the place she should have never left and then...everything around her became black...she couldn't remember anything else...where was she now? For sure it wasn't the same room from where she had tried to run away...this place where she was, was too white...and then...what was this continuous beeping sound she heard echoing through the room? She turned to her right and saw a machine, weird for her, that had a few lines moving up and down...then she remembered that she was feeling as well something pressed on her face? What was that? She didn't know but surely was helping her breathing...

She tried to move but a pressure upon her left arm stopped her from doing such a thing, she turned her face in that direction and saw the sleeping figure of Sulfus...the person who had broken her heart and had hurt her in such a way...what was he doing here? And why was he holding her hand so tightly? She couldn't help but notice the tired face he had and how his cheeks seemed to be wet...as if...he had been crying...but no...that was impossible...he had told her that he didn't cry ever since the event that marked him 11 years ago...

Suddenly the door from the room opened and the young girl took her eyes away from the boy and stared at who had opened the door. It was Seraph. This one when she saw her widened her eyes and put a hand over her mouth, as if she was shock, or better say...not shock, surprised...

"Oh my god, you're awake!" exclaimed the woman, Nymph felt her happy tone but didn't know what she meant by that...why she was so happy in seeing her awake? Wasn't that what everyone did when a new day was born? Something in there was escaping her but she couldn't understand what..."I'm going to call the doctor" Doctor? Who? That same person who she remembered had come into her bedroom and had told her to stay in bed resting? She looked again at Seraph, who even though had said she was going to call the doctor, stopped herself when she saw the girl's confusing look...her eyes then moved back to Sulfus and Seraph did the same.

She remained quiet for a while until then she smiled slightly before saying "He never left your side" and then left the room to go call the doctor. Nymph keep staring at the dark haired boy who slept deeply by her headboard...she couldn't help but raise her free hand and slightly touching his hair...what was she doing? He had caused her so much pain, why was she being so nice to him?

Her thoughts were interrupted with a moan coming from the boy, she saw his forehead frowning and his body starting to tremble slightly, the grip on her hand grew and then she heard small words coming from his mouth "No..." he murmured "Don't leave me...not...not again...no..." he seemed to be dreaming...or should she say...he seemed to be having a nightmare! The hand that was resting on his hair moved then to his shoulder and she shook him slightly, trying to wake him up while he keep murmuring over and over again the same words until...

"No!" he raised from the place he was with widened eyes and sweating, with his eyes still widened he moved them into the blonde girl's direction and his jaw dropped when he saw her awake..."Y-You're awake..." that again? Just what had happened to her? Why did everyone seemed so surprised in seeing her awake? The girl sat up carefully on the bed, for some reason she felt her body weak...and just then before she had time to react, Sulfus hugged her tightly.

One of his arms was wrapped around her waist tightly and the other hand was resting delicately on her blonde hair "Forgive me...forgive me please...I didn't want to say those things, I swear I didn't want to! I...I wasn't thinking...I'm sorry I hurt you, I'm sorry I didn't believe in you, forgive me please!" Nymph could swear that between the words he was saying, Sulfus was sobbing...and that was confirmed when he stepped a little bit away from her and she saw the tears running down his cheeks. Instinctively the young girl raised both her hands, put them on the boy's cheeks and whipped away his tears. Then smiled slightly at him...he seemed to be so sincere when he begged her to forgive him...Sulfus took that smile as an acceptance of his forgiveness.

"I...I can't believe that you have always been here by my side, Raf"

Nymph widened her eyes...Raf? Why was he calling her by the name of his friend? She took her hand away from his face and stared at him confused "Oh...sorry, sorry" Sulfus shook his head "I shouldn't have called you that, not before explaining everything to you" when he was about to explain her everything that had happened and what he had found out, the doctor and his mother entered in the room.

"Oh god, this has got to be a miracle!" exclaimed the doctor when he saw Nymph awake "Everything indicated that she could never wake up..." and then called a nurse that was passing by there, who nodded at whatever he was telling her and then walked in the room with him "Young boy, I need you to leave for a while, we need to make some tests to be sure everything is fine with her"

Sulfus hesitated...he knew she would be scared in being left alone in the room with two unknown ones...he looked at her and assured her with his eyes "Nobody is going to hurt you, they are just going to check if you don't have anything bad, I will be back okay?" little by little but with hesitation, Nymph nodded and Sulfus left the room with his mother.

A few minutes went on and the two of them were still outside the room, Sulfus hadn't stepped away from the door and watched what was happening by the small glass that was on the door, everything showed that she was reacting very well and calmly to everything the doctor asked her to do, he couldn't help but smile at that. Then he saw the doctor walking to the door, he stepped away from it and allowed the doctor to come out.

"It's a true miracle" confessed the doctor taking a look at the girl's record "She is very good for someone who just woke up from a deep coma, it's a true miracle, just like I said before the chances of her to wake up were very low"

"Doctor may I ask you a question?" said then Sulfus

"Tell me"

"Do you remember the Eryn family...? The family that..."

"That died in that tragic fire, yes I remember vaguely. Why do you ask?"

"It's just...I've found proves that she" said Sulfus indicating Nymph with his head "...might be the daughter of that family, the one whose body was never found"

"Are you sure about that?"

"Absolutely but to be sure, I would like to ask you a small favor. Is it possible to make a DNA test to find out if she really is Raf Eryn?" asked the young boy

"Mmm...it is possible, I just need the authorization from the person in charge of the girl" said the doctor

"That would be me...well I'm not legally the person in charge of her because we just took her in our house more or less about a month ago but she doesn't have anyone else" said Seraph

"How so?"

"I found her walking around the forest and my family decided to take her in, because she didn't have anyone" said quickly Sulfus, without of course mentioning the fact she lived with wolves and let alone the fact she lived in a place filled with magic.

"I see" said the doctor "Alright, I will take care of that. You may go in if you want" and he walked away, Sulfus walked in the room but Seraph didn't, she decided to give them some space and time alone.

Sulfus sat down again next to Nymph who now was free from the oxygen mask and from all those strings that lead to the machines, he took both her hands and smiled at her "Well...there is a lot of things to explain...do you not remember what happened after you run away from my home?"

The girl shook her head "Well...and went to look for you and I found you in the forest, fainted and burning up in fever, a lot more than you were before. I brought you here, the doctors later came to tell me that you had gone into a deep coma" Nymph tilted her head to the side, the word coma didn't ring in her head "Uh...let's say that you have been sleeping deeply for two days"

Then he sighed "I...called you moments ago Raf because...well...it's something hard to explain...I have reasons that lead me to believe you are Raf, that you are the friend I thought I had lost eleven years ago..." Nymph widened her eyes, how was that possible? "Come, I will show you what makes me think of it" he took her hand and helped her standing up from the bed; he led her to a small mirror there was in the room. He lifted her hair and allowed her to see the mole he had seen.

"Have you ever noticed this mole on your neck?" the girl shook her head "This mole...is the same Raf had...this is what makes me believe strongly that you are Raf...but to confirm this..." he let go of her hair and turned to her "I asked the doctor to make a DNA test" she looked at him confused, he sighed "They are going to take you a little amount of blood to know who you are, but you don't have to be afraid, I will be with you" she seemed to be scared, nervous...not just because of what he had just told her but also...because of the determination he had in confirming she was his lost friend...why did he want to know about it so much...? Wasn't...wasn't it enough to him what she already was...?

She tried to relax and forget everything when she felt his lips upon hers, at the beginning it caught her by surprise but then instinctively she relaxed and returned the kiss, it didn't take much long until both of them broke it...he looked at her into the eyes and caressed her face and then her hair, then he hugged her, putting his chin on the top of her head and closing his eyes...she however...couldn't get rid of her doubts...

Three days went on and finally Nymph was given the permission to leave the hospital, she could have left right on the day she had woken up but the doctor that accompanied her thought it was better if she stayed a few more days, resting. On that time it was made the DNA test that would help proving Nymph was Raf. The results had already arrived and...the answer was positive which was something that without any doubts made Sulfus happy and relieved...on the other side Nymph...or maybe she should be no called Raf...became suspicious, uncomfortable in knowing that...

They had now returned to the Zolfanello house but the new couple was already getting ready to leave, although Sulfus thought she shouldn't be forcing herself yet, Raf had insisted in them going to that place because she had something to do. Convinced, he ended up giving in and right now they were leaving the stables with Basilisk and Angel.

"Are you really sure you can go...?" asked Sulfus just to make sure which the blonde haired girl nodded determined, he sighed and the two of them galloped through the forest towards that place. Taking the same time as always, they arrived the place where they got out of the horses and entered the cave. Sulfus couldn't help but be nervous because he feared Raf's reaction before the place's condition was in this moment, however she seemed pretty calm...it was like she already knew what was waiting for her. He had his confirmations because when they arrived at the end of the cave and they came face to face with the place completely frozen, she was still serene...she didn't show any sign of being shocked.

Who instead was shocked and surprised was Sulfus because as soon as Raf stepped on the snow...every step she took, everything she touched with the tip of her fingers, every gesture she made...the place slowly was coming back to life, the grass was becoming green again, the snow was melting, the trees and bushes' leaves started growing again, the flowers bloomed...and what surprised more the young boy was when Raf took off her boots she was wearing and put her feet on the ice...this same started melting and the waterfall started falling freely as before on the lake.

The place was back to its beauty...the paradise was back...

However Sulfus got scared when he saw Raf falling backwards, luckily he was right behind her and managed to move fast to catch her in his arms "Are you okay?!"

Raf looked at him and nodded, then a voice raised from above them "She will be fine, she just needs to rest a little bit. Bringing this place back to life tired her a bit" the two looked above their heads and saw the spirit, none of them seemed surprised to see her though. Sulfus picked Raf up in his arms and laid her against the trunk of a tree to let her rest. She smiled at him which he smiled back.

That was when the wolves appeared and when they saw the blonde haired girl again there, none of them hesitated in running to her. She got on her knees and put her arms around the wolves, smiling at each lick they gave her, the cubs had jumped to her lap and cuddled in there.

"So...can you already tell me how she got here...?" asked Sulfus looking at the spirit, but it shook its head

"I won't tell"

"And why not?!"

"Because she is the one who must remember what happened, I shouldn't be the one telling everything. However you can...you must help her remembering, talking about every moment you both lived when you were kids until the day the fire happened, and then it's up to her."

Sulfus became a bit uncomfortable with all the mystery the spirit was holding back...why couldn't she just tell everything that had happened?! He sighed and sat down next to Raf, who laid her head on his shoulder, the dark haired boy raised her chin slightly, putting a hand underneath it, the two looked into each other's eyes and leaned in to kiss.

"Hum...Raf..." that was when suddenly she broke the kiss and moved away, the boy became even more confuse when he saw her standing up and running to the zone hidden behind the waterfall.

"What's going on? Did I do something wrong?" asked the boy, turning to the spirit who was still there

"You didn't get it, did you?"

"If I had understood I wouldn't have asked"

"Careful with your sarcasm boy...once again you didn't understand what she is feeling; you didn't understand that somehow you've hurt her"

"What...?"

"You keep calling her by her real name and you only assumed your real feelings towards her when you found out who she was. Can't you understand?"

"I..."

The spirit sighed "She thinks that you only love her because you've discovered that she is your missing childhood friend, she thinks you don't love her for who she has always been, she thinks you don't love the girl who has always been by your side, she thinks that you just love her because you finally know who she is and that you don't love her other side."

Sulfus couldn't believe in what he had just heard, the spirit was right, he once again didn't understand what she was feeling...when she was Nymph, the girl who had saved his life, the girl who had showed to him things he didn't know could possibly exist, the girl who had been by his side in the good and bad moments, always comforting him when he needed, as this girl he had always doubted about his feelings towards her...but as soon as he had found out she was Raf, the little girl that he had known for three years until the day she disappeared after that terrible fire, as this girl he hadn't hesitated in saying he loved her...

He stood up from the place he was sitting and walked up to where he had seen the young girl go...he saw her sitting by the entrance of the cave where she before slept with the wolves, a bit wet due to the small splashes the waterfall in front of her caused, but she didn't seem to be bothered about it. Something he noticed immediately was the sad look in her eyes as she held a piece of her golden hair and caressed it between her two hands. He approached her carefully but she didn't do anything to move away from him nor react before his presence, she just stayed there.

He sat down next to her and stared at her, then opened his mouth to speak but closed it again, thinking better in what he was going to tell her before speaking, then a small smile appeared on his lips and he said "Nymph..." the girl raised her head surprised and then little by little she looked at him, that smile was still on his lips "If you want I can keep calling you Nymph, I don't mind" he put a hand on her face and caressed it "I had no idea that you felt that way...I'm sorry I didn't want to make you suffer, I'm such an idiot, I can't do anything but hurt you and the worse is that I don't even notice that I'm doing it...but..."

He laid his forehead against hers "I love you for what you are and you've always been, as Raf, or has Nymph, I don't care, I love you because you've always been by my side, you always supported me and you never left me alone" little by little a smile appeared on the girl's lips and then Sulfus kissed her the way he never had before. She returned it and put her arms around his neck and then fell backwards, bringing him down with her. They broke the kiss for a few moments to stare into each other's eyes and then kissed again, moving their hands on their faces and hairs. Starting their evening and night of love.

TBC...


	16. New Year Ball and Small Memories

**The Waterfall's Nymph**

**Chapter 16 – New Year Ball and Small Memories**

Sulfus opened his amber eyes when he felt the sun light hitting on his face, he put an arm over them and yawned. The memories of what happened last night started going through his mind, causing a smile to appear on his lips, he removed the arm from his eyes and sat up on the grass where he had been sleeping, grass that covered a good part of his back but nothing that a good bath wouldn't resolve. With his body only covered by his warm jacket, the amber eyed young boy turned to his side where he was excepting to see his sleeping partner, but that didn't happen, Raf wasn't there anymore.

"Hum...Raf?" he murmured as he rubbed his eyes, still filled up with sleep, with the back of his hand, he yawned again. Where did she go? He got his answer when he looked at the lake and saw her swimming freely, diving and coming back to the surface in no time but she never saw him. He smiled when he saw her and couldn't help but think how beautiful she was. That was when an idea crossed his mind. He stood up and walked in the water sneakily, he tried to be as silent as possible when he approached her and just when she came into the surface again, he circled his arms around her.

However she didn't get scared because she knew that he was the only person in there besides her. She laid against his chest and smiled, he approached his lips to her ear "You were bad when you left me there alone" she smiled again "You know that I will have to punish you for that, don't you? And your punishment is..." he began tickling her on the belly and she, even though she couldn't release any kind of laugh, started kicking her legs back and forth trying to release herself from his grip, he laughed and keep tickling her until she couldn't handle anymore. Then both of them fell into the water, still in the arms of each other.

He kissed her and smiled again, looking at her in the eyes "I love you" he whispered, Raf smiled and then opened her mouth as if she wanted to tell him the same but then a sad look filled her eyes and she looked down...seeing this Sulfus put a finger underneath his beloved's chin and forced her to look at him "What's wrong?"

The young girl put a hand on her throat and Sulfus seemed to understand what was wrong: she was sad because she couldn't speak, she feared that she would never be able to speak to him, to tell him what she felt and all of that...she thought she would spend the rest of her life communicating with him through notes and gestures..."Raf..." he grabbed both her hands and looked at her in the eyes, she could see all the love and passion that he felt for her through those fiery eyes "I promise that I will find a way to have you recover your voice...even if I have to spend a fortune to pay to the best surgeons, I will find a way to make you talk again" he kissed her which she returned, as soon as they separated she hugged him tightly.

They remained that way for a while until they decided to get out of water, get dressed and then leave the place, riding on their own horses. As they galloped through the forest to return to the city, Raf had the feeling that she had already done something like this before...but she had only ride Angel for the first time a week ago...all she had done was ride slowly on her, they didn't have galloped...then what kind of feeling was this, thinking on all of this she felt her head starting to spin round and so she found it was better to stop Angel before she fell from the horse...

When she stopped, she put a hand on her forehead and closed her eyes, trying to make go away that sudden dizzy spell that got in her. Seeing that she wasn't accompanying him any longer, Sulfus stopped Basilisk and turned around and saw his beloved with her hand on her forehead. Worried, the boy made half with the horse and walked up to her "Raf? Are you okay?"

She didn't react...she simply remained with her eyes shut and the hand on her forehead, many flashes appeared on her head, they came and leaved so fast that she didn't have to time to understand what they were, all she remembered was to see a blonde haired child e two adults offering to the little one a white colt, then she saw the same child caressing the mane of the colt, with her face close to it and lastly she saw a boy around the same age as the girl very similar to Sulfus and both were galloping through the garden of a house, riding on two colts, a white and a black one.

"Raf!" the young girl opened her blue eyes suddenly, only then she realized that Sulfus' arms were wrapped around her body and that he was looking at her very worried "Are you alright? You worried me! You just wouldn't react!"

All she could do was put again a hand on her forehead and a confused look in her eyes...after having spent so many time together, Sulfus seemed to already recognize better her gestures "Did you remember something?" the girl hesitated because she wasn't really sure but then nodded. The raven haired boy then didn't insist anymore, he didn't even ask her what she had remembered because he knew that she could only tell him when they got home and she write it on a paper...but also because he knew it was hard for her to handle all these things at the same time...

He kissed her forehead and then decided to continue their way back home once she felt better and ready to continue. When they arrived at the field where they could see most of the city, Sulfus noticed on the agitation of the richest families in getting ready..or should he say in shopping, buying dresses, shoes, very expensive accessories...

"What a big agitation...why is that..." but then he remembered and he couldn't help but hit with his hand on his forehead "Oh how could I forget it!" Raf looked at him confused "Tonight is the new year ball at the president's house, it's an old tradition, the two of us for 3 years always went to that party, but then _that_ happened...it doesn't matter, what matters is that we are late, especially because we have to get you ready!" exclaimed the young boy, accelerating towards the stables, Raf didn't take too long in following him.

Once they left the horses at the stables being take care by the handlers, the two of them walked in home where there was also a mess to get everything ready for the ball at the President's house. Seraph raised her head and saw the couple coming in.

"Where have you two been?!"

"I warned you that we probably wouldn't sleep at home, mom" said Sulfus

"Yes I know that but you could have arrived a little sooner no?"

"I completely forgot about the ball at the president's house" said the boy

"As usual" said the sister making Sulfus glare at her

"Mom, we have a tiny problem"

"And that is?"

"Raf...we don't have any clothes for her and surely the shops have sold out with all the mess at the city" said the boy scratching the back of his head

"Mmmm..." Seraph began thinking a little, there should be a dress somewhere that would fit the girl and that it wouldn't be too old..."Come with me dear, I'm sure we will find something" she said taking the girl's hand in hers, the girl followed her. Sulfus thought that it would be better if he went to get ready too.

About two hours went on and Sulfus already had everything ready for him for tonight, just like his sister and father had too, who hadn't given any sign of life were his mother and Raf. But it didn't take too long until the two of them entered in his bedroom.

"Well the dress is chosen but we now we have another tiny problem" said Seraph

"And that is?"

"She doesn't know how to walk on high heels..." murmured his mother, Sulfus huffed, he forgot that it was required for all the women to wear high heels in that party, all of them except the children of course "Do you mind taking care of it? Help her getting used to the high heels while I take the dress to the dressmaker to make a few changes" the young boy nodded, he knew it would take a while but they still had a few hours until the ball.

And so it was like that, during the whole evening the couple spent their time helping Raf getting used to the high heels. The girl fell lots of time but was always caught by her beloved, it was like teaching a baby to take his first steps...something hard, funny but also exhausting...the night came and Raf finally was able to walk on the high heels without falling or without her heels hurting. Seraph had arrived as well, calling the girl to go get ready for the party.

Already downstairs after being ready, Sulfus, Edan and Elisabeth were waiting for Seraph and Raf who were still getting ready. Sulfus was sitting on the sofa trying to adjust his sister's hairstyle, although he didn't understand much of hairs he was just giving some adjust with the hair clips she had put on but that were falling already.

"Lizzie, do you mind staying still?! Like that I can't do this!" complained the boy with one of the hair clips in his mouth

"You have been working on it for nearly half an hour!" complained the little girl as well

"Excuse me if I'm not some professional hairdresser! Would you rather have your hair ruined in the middle of the party?" retorted the boy

"Come on you two stop it!" said Edan tired of hearing them discussing, the two of them shut up and Sulfus finally managed to put well the hair clip on Elisabeth's hair. That's when he heard his father say "Ah finally there they are" Sulfus looked up and was amazed by Raf's beauty, she was wearing a simple but long light blue dress, nearly covering her whole feet, the upper part was decorated with rose shaped frills more or less in the same shade as the dress color and then another rose on the waist. She was wearing the high heels that she wore during their practice and the hair now only hang down her shoulder, wavy and caught by many white hairclips.

"Close your mouth boy" said the father when he saw his son amazed with his mouth open staring at the young girl, who smiled when she saw her boyfriend reacting like that. Sulfus walked to the end of the stairs and took the girl's hand to help her coming down.

"You look beautiful" murmured the boy, she smiled again "No...I will correct myself...you ARE beautiful" he continued caressing the girl's face, she blushed

"Hey lovebirds, let's get going we are already late" said Edan, the two of them nodded and walked to the car. The driver guided them to the president's house which wasn't very hard to find due to it be very big and filled up with lights and the music could be heard already on the outside. At the entrance of it were many photographers who obviously photographed every family and sometimes some people in particular that arrived minute after minute at the president's house. The Zolfanello car stopped in front of the red carpet that filled the ground from the entrance of the house until the gate where the guests entered.

Edan and Sulfus came out of the car in first place, the first one let out his hand and helped Seraph and Elisabeth coming out, his son once the mother and sister had left helped Raf coming out. The flashes of the photos shot more than ever once they saw the girl standing by the Zolfanello's firstborn, they had already heard a few rumors and also safe sources about who was the mysterious girl who lately was seen a lot with Sulfus, even when he was engaged with the only daughter of the Rosso. Sulfus however didn't want to expose Raf to these photographers because he knew most of them were from the magazines that criticized negatively a lot his family from anything they did. So he laced his arm in hers and the two of them followed immediately his parents to inside the house.

The raven haired boy sighed relieved as soon as they entered in the house, the only place where those photographers didn't have permission to come in. The family walked up to the president and his wife who were greeting another newly arrived couple.

"Mister President how are you?" said Edan as he shook the man's hand and kissed his wife's hand

"We're fine thank you. Ah, the young Sulfus, you look taller since the last time I saw you boy!" exclaimed the president noticing then the girl who accompanied Sulfus "I've found out that you ended your engagement with Kabale Rosso"

Sulfus frowned a little; it wasn't something he liked to talk about "Well yes...sometimes as much as a relationship has endured, if there isn't love anymore then it's not worth going forward" he murmured "But we stayed friends"

"Well you're absolutely right, besides you are still young to be attached already to a marriage. And this young lady, who is she?"

"She is Raf Eryn" said the young boy

"Eryn? But isn't that the family who-"

"Yes, mister president, the family who died in that tragic fire" said Edan "But seems like destiny caught us all by surprise and little Raf survived it, it's a shame that she doesn't remember anything but according with the doctors, it may have been caused by a trauma"

"I understand perfectly, nobody wants to remember such a tragedy like that one, but I'm happy that someone after all has survived" said the president, then he smiled when he saw the complicity between the two teenagers "Sulfus, follow my advice, take good care of this girl and don't let her go. Who knows, you didn't find your happiness next to the young Kabale but maybe you can find it next to her" Sulfus smiled and put his arm around his partner's waist.

"Yes, I think you are absolutely right" the family left the president, giving place to another family who had arrived. Sulfus and Raf took the chance to go dance a little and were on their way to the dance saloon when Raf suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong?" asked Sulfus finding weird his girlfriend's behavior

But Raf did nothing, she just keep staring two children, a boy and a girl, more or less whose age was around 6/7 who were dancing goofily but happily on the dance saloon, the two of them laughed when they stumbled on their own feet. Little by little in the eyes of Raf, those two children started changing into two different ones, a boy with short, rebellious and blue hair and a girl with long blonde hair...dancing the same way these children were doing but also very happy.

"Raf?" the girl woke up, once again, from her memories and looked at Sulfus

"I swear that you keep scaring me whenever you do that. Did you remember something else?" the blonde haired girl nodded. Sulfus then took her hand and the two began dancing, calmly and really close to each other, until the girl then laid her head against his chest. He smiled. The hours went on and the people would alternate between eating, talking, drinking and dancing, midnight was close, only 2 minutes left for the fireworks that announced the beginning of the New Year to be released on the dark blanket of the night.

Sulfus took Raf's hand and took her to a balcony that was open and had a stone bench in there. The two of them sat down with their hands laced in each other and with a smile on both their faces.

"After 11 years, here we are again" murmured the young boy, breaking then the silence "Listen...do you remember when we met? What happened after we met the first time?"

The girl shook her head "Well, then I will tell you. After we were introduced to each other, our parents went inside the house and left us alone on the garden. I was in big bad humor on that day, I didn't want to leave home but my parents made me, so I pouted, not that it would help me. So I sat down by the feet of a tree playing some Gameboy I had brought with me and I wasn't paying any kind of attention to you. However you were trying to climb up to a swing but you weren't capable of"

_Little Sulfus keep pressing the buttons of his game but at the same time he heard the sounds little Raf would make whenever she tried to climb up to the swing and that annoyed him more than anything. Then the little girl was about to be able to climb up when an arm slipped away from it and made her fall on the floor, scared by this little by little the girl began crying._

_Sulfus was beginning to get so annoyed with all that crying and so he left the game behind, stood up and walked up to the little girl who keep crying. Seeing a huge shadow covering her, the girl still crying, raised her head showing her big teary eyes, stared at the boy._

"_Stop crying, that's annoying!"_

_Hearing the rude tone of the boy, all little Raf did again was cry one more time but this time louder than the last time "Stop!" said Sulfus, covering his ears "Ok, ok I help you getting on the swing but stop crying please!" hearing that Raf stopped crying and looked at him, who sighed in relief. He helped her getting up from the grass and because he had some more strength than she had, he managed to get her on the swing. Then he started pushing her to give some balance to her._

"Since that day we became inseparable, we did everything together" Raf smiled, vaguely as he had told her this small episode of their past, small images had appeared in her mind...she ended up laying her head against the boy's shoulder who smiled.

Then the fireworks began rising and exploded in the air, making colored and beautiful figures, yells and whistles from inside the saloon were heard. Sulfus looked at Raf and then kissed her.

"Happy New Year, Raf...my Waterfall's Nymph" he said, she smiled at him and then he whispered in her ears "Make a wish"

Raf closed her eyes and made her wish, something that she wanted more than anything to happen...

TBC...


	17. Face to Face with the Fears of the Past

**The Waterfall's Nymph**

**Chapter 17 – Face to Face with the Fears of the Past**

"I can't believe this!" exclaimed Sulfus, throwing a magazine against the table of the living room where many others were. He stood up from the sofa and walked back and forth around the room, trying to calm down, he was so tired of this..."I should process all of them!"

"Sulfus calm down, please" said Seraph seeing the nervous state her son was. All of them were reunited in the living room, it was the morning after the New Year ball that had happened at the president's house, and let's say that the morning for the Zolfanello didn't begin in the best way, at least for Sulfus...

"How do you want me to calm down, mom?!" said the young boy "How do you want me to calm down when these people are writing and publishing all those lies and barbarities about Raf?!" he grabbed one of the magazines " _'Young girl fakes to be the missing daughter of the Eryn and tricks the Zolfanello family to get access to their fortune' _?! How do you want me to calm down after reading THIS!" he threw the magazine again against the table.

"And don't you think this is what they want? To get you mad? For you to try to process them, to make a scandal that will then go to the other magazines?" said Edan

"Your father is right, you have got to calm down" affirmed Seraph, but the young boy simply couldn't do it even though he knew his parents were totally right...this is what the reporters wanted, for him to try to process them, for him to make a scandal, these magazines lived for this, for the scandals about the life of the richest families and his family has been haunted for a couple of years with this, lies after lies...it had been for this reason, because of these magazines that Sulfus had kept his relationship with Kabale even though he didn't love her anymore...he just wanted his family to have some peace...

The boy sighed and allowed himself to fall on the sofa, putting his hands on his face, that was when he felt two other hands rest on his shoulders, he turned around and faced Raf who was smiling at him as if trying to calm him down. He sighed and grabbed both her hands.

"I'm really sorry for what's happening..." she shook her head and keep smiling, as if saying it wasn't his fault "I still want to know how they managed to have access to the balcony's zone..."

"Sulfus don't think about it right now, it's no use for you to torture yourself with this. The best you can do is to ignore those bastards and live your normal life" the boy sighed and nodded, still with his hand on Raf's own, the two of them stood up from the sofa and left home. Because Raf had remembered lots of things when she walked on places or did things she had done in the past, Sulfus decided to keep using that method.

The two of them arrived to a glade, there were much nothing than a few trees without leaves and snow at this moment "It was here" murmured then Sulfus, putting an arm around Raf's waist and pulling her more against him, she however didn't understand what he meant.

"Your house was here" he continued, walking a little bit more forward to some ruins covered with vegetation "After the fire, this is what was left of your house..." Raf stared at the place where the ruins were, Sulfus took to a side of the ruins, there was a small hill that would lead them to a river "And here was where I saw you for the last time, we escaped from there" he said indicating the hole in one of the ruin's walls. The blonde haired girl stared at the places that were shown to her right now...but all of this was very confusing to her...many flashes appeared and disappeared on her head, one after another and unlike what happened on the last day, she couldn't see anything that her mind was showing to her...the young girl put her hands on her head and closed her eyes.

Sulfus noticed the affliction her girlfriend was having and putting his hands on her shoulders, he tried to understand what was going on "Raf? Raf, what's wrong?"

Unlike the other times that she managed to calm down, this time it didn't happen. The young girl freed herself from the boy's grip and run away, running through the glade, with her hands still on her head. Sulfus, as soon as he recovered from the surprise, run after her. But Raf was already far away and he ended up losing sight of her.

~*.*~*.*~

Raf keep running through the glade and through the snow, not even seeing where she was going. She ended up tripping on a rock hiding in between the white blanket; she fell and rolled a little. She opened her eyes but remained on the place she was, getting her breathe back.

That's when a shadow covered her, thinking it was Sulfus, the young girl raised her look and found out how wrong she was...

~*.*~*.*~

Sulfus arrived in the middle of the glade where he thought he had seen his beloved going to, he too was trying to get his breathe back but didn't stop looking around, trying to see Raf but he couldn't see any sign of her. But then something caught his attention, something that shone in the middle of the white blanket. The boy didn't hesitate in approaching and when he got closer, he saw the small golden music box. Yes, he had given it back to Raf moment before she left the hospital, and because the chain broke since the last time the girl had used it, Sulfus had replaced it with a new one.

But here it was again, buried in the snow, lost and away from its owner...the dark haired boy grabbed the object and looked around again...he saw footprints, of two different shoes and seemed to be going towards the city...Sulfus frowned...he had a bad feeling...

~*.*~*.*~

"You know, it's an advantage for me the fact you can't talk little girl" said the voice of a man as he dragged the poor and scared Raf "Like this nobody can hear you screaming and it makes things easier for me" the young girl tried to free herself from her kidnapper's grip but he held her even stronger, she didn't know where he was taking her but immediately figured out when they entered through the backdoors of an old stable.

The man was nobody else than Edwin Rosso...Raf had to admit that the look he was giving her, it scared her and made her think even more about what he was planning to do with her...the indigo color of the man's eyes stared at the blonde haired girl with hate and disdain.

Raf stood up as quick as she could from the floor and tried to run out of the stable or at least to have someone see her and come to help her. But Edwin quickly grabbed her by her hair and forced to go back inside "Don't you even think you will escape, not this time, not again" he grabbed her by both her arms tightly "You have already interfered times enough in my plans, little girl. You should have died in that night, you should have died in that fire together with your parents!" he threw her to the floor.

He kneeled down before her and with a hand he grabbed her face "You know...I will tell you my plans...after all you're going to die right here and now, so there isn't a problem. From the very beginning I had in my mind to put my daughter together with Sulfus Zolfanello, I was ruined and the fortune of the Zolfanello was the only thing that could help me get out of the hole I was dug in but first I needed to approach them...I had everything planned when your little family appeared in the city and look who would have guessed, your daddy was the best friend of Edan Zolfanello. You became a big obstacle to me and even more when I realized you and Sulfus were very close to each other, with you on the way it would be harder to make my Kabale approach him...so I made up a plan..."

Raf widened her eyes "That's right, I'm the responsible for the fire that killed your parents 11 years ago! Everything was planned, I just needed to break in the house through a window and set up fire on the curtains, the fire soon would spread through the whole house. I found out that the Eryn had a secret passage and I knew that saving you and Sulfus would become your parent's priority, so I waited and when I saw you two running out, as soon as I made sure that Sulfus was far way enough from the house, kaboom...I made the house explode, an explosion where you were caught in the middle. I saw you spread on the floor and without moving, so I assumed you were dead...then I just to start making sure Kabale would get closer to Sulfus...my wife however found out that I had been the cause of the Eryn's death and so I had to eliminate her, I made everything to look like an accident...years later my daughter and Sulfus assumed their relationship, everything was going as planned...but as the years went on I began noticing how Sulfus was getting distant and losing his feelings for my daughter and soon he would leave her, so I acted and I spread the rumor about the fact Sulfus was planning to ask my daughter in marriage, I knew he would do everything to keep his family's name and so he would keep his relationship with her."

With the other hand, he grabbed again the girl by her hair, causing a huge pain to spread through the girl's body "But then YOU showed up and you ruined everything, again! You made Sulfus fall in love with you and left my daughter, my plan was disappearing! I tried to accuse you from having stolen my deceased wife's necklace by sending a man to sneak in your bedroom and put it in the middle of your things but I still don't know how the police managed to find the proves that you were innocent" Raf widened her eyes again...so Edwin didn't know that it was his own daughter who gave the proves that exonerated her from the crime she never made "Again you were in my way and so I arrived the limit, as it's said: "If you want something well done, then be you the one doing it" your end has come girly, you're going to sleep with the angels..."

Raf bite the hand that grabbed her face and tried to attack the man, scrapping his face, he screamed in pain and pushed forcefully the girl who hit with her head against one of the pillars of wood from the stable, the girl fell unconscious. Edwin stared at her with hate and took from his pocket handcuffs, he kneeled down again, grabbed the girl's hand and arrested her with the handcuff on the pilar..."You won't leave from here"

Then he began spreading gasoline on the whole stable...once it was done, he walked towards the exit and lighting up a lighter, he threw it to the floor...it didn't take too long until the stable was on fire...Edwin closed the doors of the stable and disappeared from the scenery...

~*.*~*.*~

Sulfus had followed the footprints that he had seen in the forest and those had guided him to the city...but where was he going to find Raf in middle of all these people...he had no choice but to ask people if they had seen her. To each person he asked the young boy described Raf the best he could although all the answers were always the same: I haven't seen her.

The boy was beginning to despair and that was when he saw the dark cloud of smoke that rose in the air and the smell of something burning. Suddenly he felt someone pulling on his shirt and he looked down, seeing a little boy "Sir are you looking for a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes? A girl that is always with you?"

Sulfus felt a wave of relieve spread through his body "Yes I am, do you where she is or have you seen her?"

"Yes I saw her but you have to come with me" the little boy grabbed Sulfus' hand and the two of them run to the place where the child said he had seen Raf. They didn't take too long in arriving to the burning stable..."She is in there, I saw a man bringing her to here and when I went to get help, the stable was already on fire"

Sulfus widened his eyes as he stared at the flames "No..." he murmured, he was completely paralyzed! He wanted to go inside that stable and save his beloved but something was stopping him, his body no longer answered to what his mind ordered...he thought he had surpassed the fear for the fire but after all he was wrong...

"Sulfus!" he heard someone calling him, the boy turned around and came face to face with Kabale who was running in his direction

"Kabale...?"

"I saw the flames and I came to see what was going on...what are you doing here?" asked the girl

"I...Raf...she..."

"Raf? What's wrong with her?"

"She...is inside the stable..."

Kabale widened her amber eyes when she heard that, she stared at the stable where many people were throwing buckets of water to try and eliminate the flames but it was in vain, the flames were too strong. Sulfus then seemed to get out of his trance and a determinate look replaced the fear look...

"I'm going to get her..." he murmured

"What?! Are you crazy?!" yelled Kabale

"I hope I was...but I can't leave her there..."

"The firemen must be here soon; surely they will manage to save her!"

"You don't understand!" he yelled, surprising the young girl "I have to do this! I have to save her! 11 years ago I let her slip away through my fingers, I couldn't save her! I can't let that happen again!"

"You were just a kid Sulfus, you couldn't do anything back in there!"

"Exactly, I was a kid but now I'm not and I will do this!" suddenly he grabbed one of the buckets and instead of throwing the water to the flames, he dropped it on himself, he knew that being wet the chances of him getting burned were lower, he took off his jacket and then run towards the flames, entering from where before were the doors of the stable.

The people in there didn't want to believe in what they were saying "What is he doing?!" "He is out of his mind!" "He is going to die!" "He won't be able to get out of there!" people would say this...

~*.*~*.*~

Raf opened her eyes but barely could see anything or breathe well, she looked around her and saw with horror the flames that surrounded her, her eyes color of the sea widened with fear, shock and terror. The fear of the fire was hunting her again and paralyzed her...and then she noticed the handcuff that held her against the pillar, she knew then that there was no way out...

She shrunk every time the flames would get near her, more and more...

"Raf!" she heard someone calling her but couldn't understand very well who..."Raf!"

'_Sulfus...?'_ thought the young girl once she recognized the voice of her beloved..._'What is he doing here...?'_

'_He came to save you, you should know by now that he never gives up on you' _said a voice, voice that Raf didn't recognize at all

'_Who are you...?'_

'_It's me, the Spirit of the Lake, but in this moment you must find your strength and courage to give him your location'_

'_But I can't, I...I can't talk...'_

'_Of course you can, you just have to find the courage to face your fear. Remember that it was the fear who took your voice, then it's the fear who will give it back to you...'_

'_But I can't do it...'_

'_Of course you can! And you have to do it now before it's too late!'_

'_I...'_

'_NOW!'_

Suddenly the girl's mouth opened and..."SULFUUUUSSSSS!" she screamed with all her might so her beloved could hear her...

~*.*~*.*~

"SULFUUUUSSSSS!" the dark haired boy heard her voice calling him and quickly realized where it was coming from, putting his arms in front of his face, Sulfus run through the flames, opening path to find his beloved...

"Raf!" he exclaimed, running to her

"Sulfus..." she murmured as tears began flowing down her face, the boy widened her eyes as soon as he heard her talking

"Y-You're talking..."

(To this scene I recommend you to listen to the Lion King soundtrack: To Die For, but only the part that begins at 2:17)

She nodded "Yes...but that doesn't matter now...you have to get out of here"

"I'm not going without you!" he exclaimed

"You have to, there is no way for me to escape!" she said, pointing towards the handcuff that held her back...yet Sulfus didn't give up and tried to break the iron of the handcuff but in vain, he couldn't break it! "It's no use!" exclaimed Raf, the flames approached even more the couple...

"I'm not going without you" repeated the young boy, putting his hands on his beloved's face, trying to dry the tears that keep falling "We're in this together...I lost you once, I'm not losing you again..."

"But there is no way to escape...there is no way for me to escape but you can, save yourself while you still can" both of them coughed because of the smoke and then a pillar fell behind them, approaching the flames even more

"No...I'm not leaving you here...if this is the end...then we go together..." said Sulfus, accepting the dolorous truth but without even thinking about leaving his love behind...his lips united on the girl's own in a desperate kiss...then they hugged and waited for the end to come...

Everything to them became dark until they couldn't hear or see anything else...

~*.*~*.*~

Light...a white light was what his eyes saw...but he saw everything blurred...where was he? What had happened...? Oh right...a fire...the flames...and no way out...then he saw two shadows appearing above him, they seemed to be murmuring something but he couldn't understand much...

"He is waking up, finally" said one of them

"I'm so relieved" said the other one

"Sulfus can you hear us?" spoke up the first shadow

"Mom...?" murmured the boy, still half confused...

"Yes honey, it's me" he felt a hand on his face

"Where am I..?" he asked while his vision started getting better, only now he realized that he was in a hospital room, surrounded by his family and Kabale..."What happened...?"

"You don't remember anything?"

"I remember...vaguely...the stable burning...I went in and..."

"And you didn't get out" completed Kabale

"Raf...where...where is she? Is she okay?!" asked the boy when he realized his love wasn't there

"Sulfus calm down" said his father

"I just want you to tell me where she is and if she is fine!" demanded the boy

"Calm down, honey, she is fine" assured his mother "She is on the next room"

"It was real miracle, when the firemen arrived the stable was completely surrounded by the flames, there was no way for you to survive but once they erased the flames, they went in there and you were fine, besides a few little burns but you were fine" said Kabale, after hearing that not even Sulfus could understand what could have possibly saved them...

"I...I want to see her" murmured the boy

"Sulfus, you should wait for the doctor to check on you" said Edan

"I want to see her now..." insisted the boy, the mother nodded and helped by her and Kabale, the two of them took him to the next room where he had been told Raf was. As soon as the door opened, Sulfus saw his beloved already awake and when she heard the door opening, she raised her head, a smile illuminating her face when she saw the boy in front of her.

Sulfus, as soon as he saw her, gained the strength he needed and freeing himself from his mother's and ex-fiancée's arms, he run to Raf, both hugged, more happy than ever after seeing both were fine, safe and sound...

"You're okay..." murmured the boy

"I'm okay" answered the girl, surprising him; he barely remembered that the girl had recovered her voice

"I still can't believe that you can finally talk"

"The doctor said it's rare but some people are able to recover their voices" explained Seraph, Kabale walked towards them and put a hand upon Raf's own.

"Raf...I want to apologize...for everything...that my father did to you...to you and your family..." said Kabale in a suffering tone...

"Your father...?" murmured Sulfus, looking at both of them who nodded

"After you two were treated...the doctors saw that she had something on her nails, it seemed skin and because that kid had said he saw someone taking her inside the stable and then leaving, the police thought the skin should belong to the person who caused the fire at the stable...when the results arrived...well...it belonged to my father, it was my father who light up the fire at the stable and that nearly killed you both...and then Raf woke up and told the police everything she knew...that it had been him causing the fire of 11 years ago and also...the one who killed my mother...because...she find out what he was doing..." tears run down the girl's face

"Kabale...I'm really sorry..." murmured Sulfus, putting a hand on the girl's own

"It doesn't matter...what is done is done and he is having what he deserves...I no longer consider him my father, I don't consider him anything...I just hope he rots up in jail forever..." murmured the girl, she looked at the couple and forced a smile "I just hope you two can be happy...you deserve it after everything that you have been through..."

"You deserve to be happy too, Kabale...you're a good girl, you will find someone who loves you" said Raf, the girl nodded before she left the room, leaving the couple alone

"Raf.." began Sulfus "What saved us...? We had no way out..."

"It was the spirit of the lake..." murmured the young girl, he widened his eyes

"Her?"

Raf nodded "She...said that our love was pure and a love like this doesn't happen very often...so it must be preserved...and so she created a barrier around us and protected us from the flames..."

"I...I see..."

"Sulfus..."

"Yes?"

"I remember...I remember everything...what happened 11 years ago after the fire..."

"Y-You remember? And...what happened...?"

"After the explosion, I was left by the river...on a place where nobody could see me, I hit with my head against a rock and fainted. When I woke up again, I couldn't remember anything and I wasn't on the same place anymore, I was laying against something soft and furry, I looked and saw the Female Alpha who was covering me with her tail so I wouldn't be cold and her body was like a pillow, I was scared and got away from her but then I saw all the others. When I tried to scream, I couldn't...then the spirit showed up and told me only that now I was safe but I would have to lead with my muteness, but she never told me the cause...now I understand what it was...the trauma of seeing my parents die in that fire...it was enough to take my voice...and so I spent the rest of my life with the wolves, until the day when I was taking a walk on the forest and I saw your boat. Then I saw you falling in the water and disappearing and...it was like my heart told me that you were important and that I had to save you...so I jumped into the water and brought you to the surface, but the boat was already too far, so I took you to the place where you then woke up."

"Wow...incredible..." murmured Sulfus

"I will never forget what the wolves and the spirit did for me...they took me in when I had nobody else, they raised me like I was their own child...to me, they will always be my family, I want to be with you but I don't want to separate from them..." said the girl as she laid her head on the boy's shoulder

He kissed her head "I have got the solution for that..."

TBC...


	18. New Life

**The Waterfall's Nymph**

**Chapter 18 – New Life**

He put a hand on the glass...the huge glass that separated him from her but that allowed him to see her, even if it was from distance, he saw her move a little as she slept peacefully. A smile appeared on his lips, he couldn't help it...she was just so innocent...so adorable...so fragile...

He couldn't take his eyes off of her, not even to look at the others, who were fragile, innocent and adorable as well...but she...she was special...she was part of him! He just wanted to go in there and look closer at her and touch her...

And to think she was here just for a few hours...

It had been 8 years, 8 years ever since he had lived those adventures, ever since he discovered all those magnificent things, ever since he learned to believe in magic and destiny but specially...ever since he reunited with her...his Raf...his Nymph...

Both were now 25 years old, because Raf had recovered her memories and voice as well, the two dedicated their life to study and now both were directors of a shield for animals whose species was threatened, they also accepted hurt animals and took care of them and keep them in safe until they were healed and ready to go back to their habitat. As for their persona life, just like he had promised to his beloved, Sulfus had found the perfect solution that so she wouldn't separate from the wolves that raised her, and that solution was showed to the young girl when both completed 20 years, after they had finished university...not needed to be said that Raf was amazed with the idea.

"_Come on let me open my eyes!" complained the young girl as she keep walking in front of her boyfriend who stood right behind her, covering her eyes_

"_We're almost there" he said_

"_You said that same phrase 5 minutes ago!"_

"_Stop complaining and walk" the two keep walking until finally Sulfus told Raf that she could stop walking. She did and little by little she felt the boy's hands being removed from her eyes...she heard him say she could open her eyes, as soon as she did it, Raf was astonished with the view she was seeing. Before her eyes stood a big house, white and blue, with ground floor and first floor, then a garden decorated with all the type of flowers and a pool._

"_S-Sulfus..." murmured the young girl, without having time to turn around since the boy hugged her from behind, kissing then her head._

"_This is our house from now on" he whispered "As you can see, it's not too far from the city nor too far from the forest, you can go visit the wolves whenever you want"_

"_O-Oh my god...you...ordered to build this...?"_

"_Yes, it took nearly three years to be ready but here it is finally...and it's all ours" the girl literally jumped into his arms, more than happy with this surprise he had made to her._

Yes...ever since then they lived in that house, which is for 5 years already...and about one year after they had moved in the house...Sulfus didn't take too long in making her another surprise...

"_Raf..." murmured the young boy as he held his beloved's hand, it was already night and the two of them were walking through the garden of the house, they had just returned from a romantic dinner._

"_Yes?"_

_He stopped walking, walked in front of her and held both her hands "You know...that I love you more than anything else...and...I want to spend the rest of my life with you..."_

_The girl blushed before the declaration, Sulfus smiled when he saw his partner's embarrassment but then while still holding the girl's hands, he kneeled down on a knee, then he took something from the jacket's pocket, it was a square dark blue box, he opened it and Raf widened her eyes when she saw what was inside of it: a beautiful golden ring decorated with two small gems, a red and a blue one, their favorite colors._

"_S-Sulfus..."_

_The boy smiled "Raf Eryn...will you give me the honor of becoming my wife?"_

_The girl couldn't hang on any longer and jumped into her beloved's arms, screaming countless times 'Yes'._

The marriage was simple and small; they managed to do it without the presence of many paparazzi, reuniting just their closest friends and family. It was an unforgettable day for both of them but also one of the best, yes...one of the best...because about four years later, it was Raf who surprised Sulfus...

_Raf passed around the room, she was nervous...she didn't know how to tell him...what if she reacted bad? What if he didn't accept it? She took a deep breath, trying to gain courage. Suddenly she heard a knock on the door and her husband walked in._

"_Raf, are you alright? You have been up here for nearly an hour" said Sulfus, Raf touched her hair, adjusted the skirt, cleared her voice and sat down on the bed, adjusting once again the skirt, Sulfus knew immediately that those were signs of nervousness so he entered fully in the room and closed the door, not that was necessary since they were the only ones in the house. He walked up to her and sat down next to her on the bed, putting a hand on hers "Raf?"_

"_Yes I...hum...well...I'm fine" murmured the woman, however Sulfus didn't believe in a single word of his wife, he knew perfectly that she was far from being fine. He put a hand on her chin and forced her to look at him._

"_Raf...you know you can tell me everything that's happening, don't you?" she nodded "Then tell me what's happening, you are too nervous, I've never seen you like this before"_

"_I well..." she moved her hand towards something that was underneath the pillow, she took out the object and put it on her husband's hand, looking at him then, eyes in eyes. The man as soon as he realized what that object was, raised his eyes, astonished, the woman nodded "I'm...I'm pregnant"_

In fact the new had caught him by surprise but then as soon as he recovered from the surprise and initial shock, Sulfus had hugged his wife happier than ever! Then he had put a hand upon the still small belly of his wife, already anxious to feel their baby moving. The couple's happiness lasted through the whole 9 months of pregnancy but Sulfus always pouted because whenever he would take Raf to do an echography, she refused to know the gender of their baby because she wanted it to be a surprise, however Sulfus wanted to know badly if they were going to have a boy or a girl. Although she refused to know, Raf seemed very secure when she said they would have a girl.

The nine months went on and it was more than time for the couple to head for the maternity because according with the doctor that had accompanied Raf's pregnancy, the baby would be there very soon...however things didn't go as they were excepting...

"_Raf, what the heck are we doing here? We should be at the maternity already" said Sulfus, again, to his wife because instead of going to the maternity, she had insisted in going first to the waterfall even if she knew her waters could break any time soon..._

"_Sulfus, calm down, I have everything under control" said Raf as she keep walking on the grass, entering then in the water "It's odd..."_

"_What?"_

"_For some reason...I...lost my powers..." murmured the woman_

"_You lost them? But last year you had them..." said Sulfus_

"_I...I lost them...ever since...I got pregnant"_

"_That's really odd...why would pregnancy cancel your powers?"_

_Raf shook her head "I don't know...I can't understand"_

"_Raf let's go, we should be at the maternity" insisted once again Sulfus, Raf got out of the water with a hand resting on her big belly_

"_Sulfus calm down, everything is okay I-" suddenly she just couldn't talk, even her breath went missing, she held against a tree as her hand keep resting on her belly, as soon as he saw this Sulfus didn' hesitate in running to her._

"_Raf? What's wrong?!"_

"_Nothing...it was just a kick..."_

"_Just a kick? Are you sure?" said the man in an ironically tone when once again his wife twisted in pain_

"_Okay I'm not that sure..." she murmured_

"_We're going to the maternity and now, no buts" said Sulfus as he picked up his wife in his arms; however a voice stopped them from continuing their way...the Spirit of the Lake..._

"_Sulfus, you haven't understand have you?"_

"_What?"_

"_All of this was destined to happen, Raf has lost her powers ever since she got pregnant because those powers were passed to your child that will be born now, this child is destined to be born here"_

"_What?! She can't give birth here! It's dangerous!" exclaimed the dark haired man "If something goes wrong in the labor, nobody will be here to help!" the spirit approached the couple_

"_Nothing bad will happen, I've had a vision about this and everything will go just fine but you will have to help her" Sulfus didn't know what to do, he feared that whatever the spirit had seen was fake and that something would go wrong...but all the visions she had in the past had happened...so...this one wouldn't be different...right...?_

"_Alright...alright I will do it..." he didn't have any other option; he just wanted his wife and son or daughter to come out of this safe. He laid his wife against the trunk of the tree._

The labor was hard and long, Raf had tried to not scream but it was hard because the pain was a lot, each scream she gave, it was like a stab on her husband's heart because he hated to see her suffering like that without being able to do anything to stop it...but in the end...

_The cry echoed through the whole place as Sulfus took off his jacket and wrapped the newborn in there, cleaning the blood and liquid that covered the body. A smile appeared on the man's lips..._

"_You were right Raf...it's a girl" he murmured, approaching his wife who was still trying to get her breath back after doing so much force, he helped her hold the baby girl, a few tears escaped from Raf's blue eyes when she saw her daughter for the first time..._

"_She is beautiful" she murmured, looking then at her husband "She looks like you" Sulfus smiled, yes his little girl was indeed like him, it was already noticeable that her hair would be dark as her father's and her skin was a mix of her father's pale skin with her mother's tan skin. The baby's little hands moved a little and closed when Sulfus put a finger on her small palm._

_Just then he kissed his wife's head "Let's go, I will take you to the maternity"_

And so that happened, Sulfus took his wife and daughter to the maternity where they were immediately taken in and which Sulfus made up a story saying that the waters broke sooner than they had thought and barely had time to bring her to maternity because Raf went immediately into labor. So he had been the one delivering the child. The doctor had called him a hero because nearly no man would have done what he did.

"Mister Zolfanello?" called a nurse, waking up the man from his thoughts, he took his eyes off the neonatal unit where his daughter and many other babies were and looked at the woman next to him "Your wife is now awake, we are taking the baby to her. Do you want to take her?" Sulfus smiled and nodded. The two entered in the room and the nurse helped the new daddy hold the baby. Just then they walked to the room where Raf was.

The nurse opened the door "Miss Zolfanello" she called, Raf raised her head and the nurse stepped aside to allow Sulfus to walk in with the baby in his arms, a smile appeared on the woman's face when she saw them, she sat up on the bed the best she could.

"I'm going to get the papers to register the baby" said the nurse, leaving the room, leaving the new mommy and daddy alone with their baby

"Look it's mommy, sweetie" murmured Sulfus to his baby, putting her on Raf's arms who kissed her daughter's forehead, who moved her little arms towards her, staring at her parents with her big and innocent blue eyes.

"My little girl..." murmured the blonde haired girl, just then she stared at her husband who was still enchanted with the new addition of the family "Sulfus"

"Yes?"

"You name her" she said, catching the man by surprise

"M-Me?!"

"Of course, you always know how to name things better than I do" she said, giggling

"W-Well I.."

"Come on, you must have a name in mind, right?"

"Well, actually I have many of them..." he said as he scratched his head, embarrassed

"Is there one you like in particular?"

"Mmm..." he thought about the list of name he had made up for his daughter, trying to find out which one he liked better..."Well...maybe it's a name somehow strange but...what do you think of Luna?"

"Luna?"

"Yes...her skin reminds me of the color of the moon, and her face is round like the moon as well, her hair however are dark like the night's sky"

Raf smiled "It's perfect"

"Really?"

"Yes...she is our little moon...our Luna...our Luna Eryn Zolfanello"

~*.*~*.*~

_5 years later..._

Sulfus was sitting on his bed, the sheet covered his body and the pillow was supporting his back, he was reading something. Raf was already sleeping deeply next to him since a few hours ago.

That was when suddenly and little by little the door of the bedroom opened, Sulfus raised his head and came face to face with Luna, holding her teddy bear but also crying. The man didn't hesitate any second longer in closing the book, standing up from the bed and go to his daughter.

"Luna, what's wrong sweetie?" he said, kneeling down

"I...I had...a nightmare..." she said between the sobs, throwing herself then into her daddy's arms, Sulfus picked her up and caressed her wavy blue hair, trying to calm her down. To not wake up his wife, he walked to his daughter's bedroom, where he sat her down on the bed.

"There honey, it was just a dream" he said, drying the tears from his daughter's eyes who was still sobbing "Don't you want to tell daddy what you dreamt?" the little girl shook her head, Sulfus sat down on the bed and put his daughter on his lap to calm her down, it took a while but finally she calmed down.

"Daddy...?"

"Yes, sweetie?"

"Can you...can you stay here with me tonight...?" Sulfus smiled and kissed his daughter's head

"Yes, of course I can my princess" Luna's bed was small, made for just one person but with some effort Sulfus managed to get in there, he knew on the next day he would wake up with his body sore but that didn't matter to him, he just wanted his daughter to feel safe.

He keep caressing his daughter's hair until she fell asleep and then he too feel asleep..

THE END

Thank you to everyone who followed this story till the very end! And also to who left a comment!


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